Families of cardiac deaths left in the dark over tragedies
THE families of dozens of patients who died after heart surgery are to be left in the dark about what led to the deaths, it has emerged.
St George’s Hospital NHS Trust in south London is preparing to pay compensation to families of dozens of patients who died in its care. But the trust has indicated that it will not admit liability for the deaths in many cases.
Dozens of claims for compensation were submitted by relatives following allegations of clinical malpractice and mistakes in the care of the 67 seriously ill patients.
However, a coroner subsequently ruled in 20 cases that the patients were treated appropriately and no blame should be attached to the surgeons, Prof Marjan Jahangiri and Dr Justin Nowell.
As a result, NHS Resolution – which provides expertise to NHS trusts on legal disputes – changed its advice on whether St George’s should admit liability.
Leaked minutes of a meeting of St George’s Trust’s Quality and Safety Committee held this month state: “Liability for the latest six claims notified has not been admitted in line with NHS Resolution’s revised position of holding off admitting liability until of the outcome of the related inquest is known.
“These claims will be settled in due course, but the trust may be able to settle without making a formal admission of liability.”
St George’s has admitted liability for 18 deaths, with settlements of £12-35,000 in three cases. The trust is also understood to have paid out hundreds of thousands of pounds in legal fees.
The decision not to admit liability in further cases has prompted anger, with a friend of the doctors saying: “These families have suffered the upset of being falsely told that their relatives died as a result of medical malpractice... only to learn that their relative had in fact received exemplary care. To then be told that the admission of wrongdoing they were promised by NHS managers will no longer be theirs is an appallingly callous further indignity.”
An independent NHS Improvement Panel report commissioned by the trust in March 2020 concluded that 67 out of 202 patient deaths were “avoidable” and that there had been significant failings in their care.
The trust accepted the report’s findings in full and accepted liability for the 67
‘It is an outrage that not one NHS manager has faced investigation’
cases, which it referred to Her Majesty’s Coroner.
However, in 20 inquests into the deaths held so far the senior coroner overturned the panel’s conclusions. She found there had been no failings of care and no criticism of the care delivered.
Prof Jahangiri and Dr Nowell were suspended in 2018 after an internal inquiry into the cardiac surgery unit at St George’s concluded that “toxic” bickering between rival surgeons resulted in the death of patients. But a High Court judge ruled in August 2019 that no blame should be attached to the pair, who were subsequently reinstated.
A St George’s spokesman said: “The trust continues to support the families where the independent mortality review found failings in care and, while the coroner’s findings are an important consideration in clinical claims, decisions about the settlement are determined by a number of factors.”