The family of a 31-year-old woman said that she was “abandoned” in a hospital corridor for hours before her death, an inquest was told.
Tamara Davis was said to be in her “most vulnerable moments” when she was left on a trolley in a hallway at Royal Sussex County Hospital for around 10 hours.
She died of multiple organ failure and sepsis caused by influenza – or flu – on Tuesday 13 December 2022.
Her sister Miya Davis told an inquest at Horsham Coroner’s Court that Ms Davis, from Brighton, was left “to fend for herself” as she suffered from diarrhoea and coughed up blood into a small bowl.
West Sussex and Brighton coroner Joanne Andrews concluded that Ms Davis died from natural causes and that there was no evidence that being placed in the hospital corridor contributed to her death.
However, the coroner expressed her “substantial concern” over the use of corridors and said she would be writing to Department of Health and NHS England over the ongoing problem in a prevention of future deaths report.
The inquest heard that Ms Davis’s partner Raphael Ifill had rushed her to hospital on Saturday 10 December after she had what was thought to be a bad cold for several days before collapsing at home.
Mr Ifill said that they were “left for hours” in the gangway and they kept asking what was happening.
Andrew Leonard, the consultant who saw Ms Davis, told the court: “Anyone being looked after in a corridor is concerning as it’s a failure of normal care process.”
Dr Leonard told the inquest the practice was becoming “increasingly the norm” across the country in the last few years, adding: “That is a tragedy.”
He added that it was a response to “overwhelming pressure on the system”.
The inquest was told that Ms Davis was in a resuscitation room until 5.30am on Sunday 11 December when she was moved to the corridor where up to 20 patients stayed throughout the day.
She was given one dose of antibiotics, fluids and paracetamol during her treatment and was moved out of the corridor to another cubicle at 3.20pm.
The inquest heard how her condition deteriorated and she was moved into intensive care later in the night on Sunday 11 December before she died on the morning of Tuesday 13 December.
Dr Leonard said that he had many “sleepless nights” over what happened to Ms Davis but added: “I still do not think we could have predicted what would happen to her.”
He said that he believed that Ms Davis had influenza and sepsis caused by the flu strain, which led to 10,000 hospital admissions during the 2022-23 flu season that year when the “majority” of young patients recovered in two to three days.
While Ms Davis was “diagnosable” with sepsis at 4.24pm on Sunday 11 December, she was not screened for the life-threatening condition until two hours later, the inquest heard.
However, Dr Leonard said that he was not sure that it would have made “any material difference to the outcome” if she was diagnosed earlier.
The inquest also heard from senior sister Alice Edmondson who was on shift that day and asked for Ms Davis to be moved out of the corridor.
The senior nurse described how the corridors are used every day and staff are allocated to work on the corridors where there is limited access to a toilet, it is overcrowded and there is a lack of privacy for the patient.
She said: “We would never move anyone to a corridor out of choice. Nobody should be nursed in the corridor.
“I really want the family to know that I, as a senior nurse, I feel upset everyday I go to work that people are in the corridor.”
The inquest was told that that having no patients in a corridor was a priority for the trust that runs the Brighton hospital.
After the conclusion, Mr Ifill said that the hospital “could have done more” and the duty of care was “absolutely shocking”.
He said: “We shouldn’t be changing bed sheets. We shouldn’t be carrying her to the toilet. She felt abandoned. She felt alone.
“If I fall sick in Brighton, I’ve got no faith to go to that hospital. It just feels really bad in there.”
Chief nurse at the University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust, Maggie Davies, said: “We wish to extend our heartfelt condolences to Miss Davis’s family and friends.
“We entirely accept that the experience Tamara and her family had in the ED (Emergency Department) corridor before admission to intensive care fell short of the standards our patients and families should expect. That is a matter of deep regret and we are truly sorry.
“We also acknowledge the coroner’s concerns about the provision of corridor care and we are committed to working with partners to continue to try to resolve this issue for patients and families.”
What an absolute tragedy!!!
This place isn’t a hospital, it’s a death trap.
Why can’t someone deal with these fools
No getting away from it any more, the NHS kills. And very expensively at that.
14 years of Tory neglect of the NHS
Don’t be silly. If you think this is all going to stop because labour are in charge you should think again. This is largely down to mismanagement and the poor medical abilities of medical staff to arrive at the correct diagnosis. We’ve seen this before and sadly we’ll see it again and again until someone addresses the shortcomings of these fools.
I agree with both you and John. Fourteen long years of destroying the NHS is not going to be undone anytime soon, by any government, because the problems are systematically ingrained.
I think ChatGPT could not have made a less dispassionate statement compared to Chief Nurse Maggie.
I absolutely detest PR statements.