Cancer patient dies because of lack of beds

A coroner has warned of future preventable deaths after a cancer patient died after being denied an urgently needed transfer because no bed was available.

Dr Richard Brittain, the assistant coroner for Inner London North, has said that he fears there could be more deaths, like Michael Brennan’s, if the situation was not remedied.

Brennan was diagnosed with lung cancer at north London’s Whittington hospital and required emergency surgery, but the coroner’s report explains that Westmoreland Street hospital in central London was unable to find him a bed. Brennan died on 24 October last year.

Brittain wrote in his coroner’s report: “In my opinion there is a risk that future deaths will occur unless action is taken. I am concerned that this back-up plan relied on the availability of a bed at a satellite hospital, which was ultimately not available when it was required. This raises the concern that the bed status for the Westmoreland Street hospital was not known to the clinicians when this plan was devised. It is possible that future deaths could occur in similar circumstances if there is not a system in place to inform clinicians of the current bed status for the trust’s multiple sites.”