An investigation has been launched after a woman died days after she was found unconscious under her coat while waiting for seven hours in A&E.
The 39-year-old woman is said to have first attended A&E at the Queen’s Medical Center in Nottingham on the evening of January 19, complaining of a severe headache. She was observed three times by nurses. Her case was escalated, but she was not seen by a doctor before she was discovered.
When the woman was called to see a doctor, she did not respond several times. It was believed she left the emergency room because she had waited so long. She was discovered and transferred to intensive care, but died three days later on January 22.
A source familiar with the hospital told LBC first reported the incident, that up to 80 patients can wait in the ER at the same time and that waiting times can be up to 14 hours.
Dr. Keith Girling, the medical director of Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “I send my sincere condolences to the family at this difficult time. An investigation will now take place, involving the family, and until this has been completed we cannot comment further.”
Depending on the outcome of the investigation, the matter may be escalated to an external, independent investigation.
Nottingham South MP Lilian Greenwood told the BBC she was “deeply shocked” by the incident.
“It is very important now that there is a full investigation into this and that we find out the circumstances of this case,” she said.
Last year, a record 420,000 patients had to wait more than 12 hours in emergency departments, according to an analysis released by the Liberal Democrats last month. The latest figures from NHS England showed a 20% increase from 2022 in the number of people facing long delays following a decision to admit them to hospital from the emergency department.
In 2023, 419,560 people – or one in fifteen A&E patients – experienced ‘trolley wait times’ of twelve hours or more, the highest number since records began in 2011, amounting to an average of 1,150 patients per day.
Significant waiting times in emergency departments have been linked to excess deaths and increased harm to patients, as their condition could deteriorate before they are admitted or given a bed in a ward.
According to the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM), 23,003 people died in 2022 after spending at least 12 hours in an A&E waiting for care or to be admitted to a bed, which equates to around one person every 23 minutes.
Last September, Nottinghamshire Police announced they had launched a criminal investigation into pregnancy issues at the University Hospitals of Nottingham (NUH) NHS Trust, after hundreds of families raised concerns for an independent inquiry. The trust was fined a record £800,000 last January after admitting failings in the care of a woman and her baby, who died minutes after birth.
A recent review by the Care Quality Commission found that Queen’s Medical Center requires improvement, including in its emergency services.