IPSO upholds complaint against the Sunday Mirror

Following an article published on 29 May 2022 headlined “PATIENTS LEFT TO DIE IN HOSPITAL STORE ROOM”, Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, acting on its own behalf and on behalf of two nurses employed by the Trust, complained to the Independent Press Standards Organisation that the newspaper had breached Clause 1 (Accuracy) of the Editors’ Code of Practice. IPSO partially upheld this complaint under Clause 1 and has required the Sunday Mirror to publish this adjudication as a remedy to the breach.

The article reported on “whistleblowers’” claims about patient care at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital. It stated that “Old people were left to die on a trolley in a hospital store room – with only a flimsy screen to protect their dignity, whistleblowers say. Witnesses say the miserable fate was endured by at least three brought into A&E at troubled Gloucestershire Royal Hospital last month.” It further reported that “at least” three elderly people with no relatives had died in cohort areas at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital during April 2022.

The complainant said the article was inaccurate as there had been one death in the allocated area in April 2022 and that the patient had staff with them at all times. It later said a Freedom of Information request had found that there had actually been no patient deaths in this area during April 2022. The complainant also said the article was inaccurate as it had described the cohort areas as “store cupboards” in the text and as a caption to an image.

IPSO noted that the article effectively made two claims: that a hospital “store room” was being used for patient care (a reference to the “cohort areas”) and that patients had been “left to die” there.

IPSO acknowledged that the claims had been attributed to the “whistleblowers” but given the seriousness and significance of the claims, this attribution was not sufficient. IPSO found that claims that the cohort area was a “store room” and the number of patients “left to die” there appeared to have come from a single source, and the “store room” allegation had not been put to the complainant prior to publication.

IPSO found that the “store room” was, in fact, a “cohort area” – a designated space for patients attended by medical staff, and that no patients had died in these areas in April 2022.

The claim that the cohort areas were “storage rooms” was highly significant in the context of the claim that they had been used for end-of-life care and that patients had died there. The publication had not taken care over the accuracy of the claim that patients had been “left to die” in the “store room”. The publication had breached Clause 1.