Her death has been attributed to bed blocking and the NHS corridor care crisis
An elderly woman has died after refusing to go to hospital because she had been left on a chair ‘for hours’ on a previous visit despite having a broken back.
A coroner has filed a report to Health Secretary Wes Streeting over the incident which she put down to bed blocking and the NHS corridor care crisis.
Dorothy Reid was ‘in discomfort for hours’ in a busy emergency department at Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother (QEQM) hospital in Margate, Kent, in March last year.
The 91-year-old needed emergency care again just a few days later but refused because she had ‘such a poor experience’ previously.
Reid died of a blood clot but North East Kent Coroner Catherine Wood ruled that she may not have died if she had attended A&E.
Wood said: “On both attendances to the emergency department at QEQM she had to wait on a chair as there were no beds.
“The first attendance led to such a poor experience that she chose not to go back to hospital when an ambulance was called on 31 March 2024.
“Had she gone to hospital on 31 March 2024 when advised to do so it is likely that her pulmonary embolus would have been diagnosed in the emergency department and treated and she would not have died when she did.”
Reid had been advised to go to hospital after suffering a fall at home.
Spinal fractures were identified on an x-ray and she was referred to the emergency department where she was ‘kept overnight’ before she was given an MRI.
The report highlighted how she ‘had to wait on a chair as there were no beds’.
At the time, medical staff recorded that the patient was suffering from breathlessness.
Ten days later, her daughter contacted the 111 service and an ambulance was called after she was complaining of shortness of breath accompanied by swollen feet and lower legs.
The report states: “Although the ambulance crew advised that she should attend hospital, she wanted to avoid a trip to hospital due to her previously having to wait in discomfort for hours.”
The news comes as NHS bosses issued a warning that hospitals in England are ‘close to full’ as a significant number of beds are occupied by people who are medically fit to be discharged.
NHS England said last week that around 96% of hospital beds were full. And one in seven of these beds were taken by patients who were medically fit to be discharged.
Wood has filed a Prevention of Future Deaths report to the Secretary of State and NHS England Chief Executive Amanda Pritchard, stating ‘action should be taken to prevent future deaths and I believe you have the power to take such action’.
