Coroner criticises hospital for 'gross failings'

A coroner has hit out at “gross failings” at the Royal Oldham Hospital following the death of Nicholas Smith, from Littleborough, an alcohol-dependent man who wasn’t dealt with quickly or given the correct medication.

Mr Smith died on 18 April 2013 after being admitted to hospital with problems resulting from his dependence on alcohol. The 42-year-old taxi driver had been trying to reduce his reliance on around 1.5 litres of vodka a day.

The father-of-one was taken to hospital on 16 April after failing to eat for several days. On arrival at 7.15pm Mr Smith should have been examined and placed on the 'alcohol pathway', after showing signs of withdrawal, but he wasn’t referred for some time and wasn’t given Librium, used to relieve the symptoms of withdrawal, until 10.40pm.

Observations throughout the night showed no cause for concern, the inquest heard, though protocol demanded he be woken and examined every four hours, a procedure not correctly followed.

At around 4pm next day he suffered the first of several seizures but seemed to recover fairly quickly. At 8pm his second seizure, while standing, resulted in a fall and hitting his head on the ground. A CT scan showed substantial bleeding and he was due to be transferred to Hope Hospital in Salford for surgery.

His condition deteriorated and Mr Smith died at 11.30am next day from a bleed on the brain caused by the head injury.

Dr Shubhra Phandhan, a consultant physician at the Royal Oldham Hospital, said the trust had taken steps to prevent such an event happening again.

Mr Smith’s heartbroken daughter Amy said: “It is hard to hear that if there hadn’t been so many delays in his care, my dad might still be here.”

Coroner Simon Nelson said: “The trust has conducted a thorough enquiry and has revealed shortcomings which I very sincerely hope will not become apparent in any future inquests I have to conduct.”

However, he said he couldn’t draw a link between the failures that occurred, some of them “gross failures”, and Mr Smith’s death.