Surgeons who needed a crash team for patient told to call 999

Surgeons at Rochdale Infirmary were unable to get emergency assistance when a patient went into cardiac arrest during in a routine operation at the hospital - because it no longer has a cardiac arrest team.

Earlier this week Rochdale Online reported that the cardiac arrest team had been removed.

We were told by a spokesman for the Pennine Acute Hospital Trust that the required support for the Infirmary was still available and that the risk of a patient having a cardiac arrest at the Infirmary is now much lower because of the reduced services.

However, it has now emerged that doctors operating on the patient didn’t know that the cardiac arrest team, also known as a ‘crash team’ had been removed. When they summoned the team they were advised to call 999 for an ambulance.

The patient was having an angioplasty - a routine operation where vessels around the heart are widened. The patient survived and his heart was restarted without any outside help.

The Trust said there is no record of staff being told to dial 999 at the time. They also said they are looking again at the arrangements in place. In which time some scheduled operations will be postponed.

A spokesman for The Pennine Acute Trust said: “It is a known risk that occasionally patients can suffer a cardiac arrest during an angioplasty.  One of these occasions happened on Tuesday when a patient had a cardiac arrest during an angioplasty.  The patient was successfully resuscitated and transferred to the Silver Heart Unit at Rochdale Infirmary and then to Fairfield General Hospital. The patient has since been discharged.

“Specific and separate resuscitation arrangements were available to the catheter lab at Rochdale Infirmary, but because patient safety is our top priority we are taking the opportunity to look at these arrangements again over the next few days.”

Simon Danczuk, Rochdale’s MP, has called for an inquiry into the incident, the BBC reported.

http://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/news-headlines/58136/infirmary-no-longer-has-cardiac-arrest-team