A&E failings exposed during inquest into diet pill suicide

A CORONER has criticised hospital failings in an overwhelmed A&E department over the death of a rape victim who overdosed on diet pills.

Bethany Shipsey, 21, was left on a trolley in an overcrowded corridor before being seen by a junior doctor dealing with a drug he had “never seen before”.

An inquest heard she swallowed pills she had purchased online from Ukraine before texting a friend, saying: “I have just overdosed on DNP.”

She was taken to Worcestershire Royal Hospital – where she was on home leave from a psychiatric ward – following the overdose on Feb 15 last year.

Alireza Niroumand, an emergency junior doctor, admitted he should have referred Ms Shipsey to critical care hours earlier – but the department was full and he had been “too busy”.

She was taken to a resuscitation room, but was moved to make way for others, and only had a tracheotomy for respiratory arrest when it was too late. She died on a hospital trolley having been moved three times in 20 minutes.

Yesterday, Geraint Williams, Senior Worcestershire Coroner, exposed failings in Ms Shipsey’s care as he recorded a conclusion of suicide. He said: “The A&E was very busy. It was overwhelmed. It was not that the staff could not cope, it just meant that it took them longer to deal with each patient.”