Dad Dies After Hospital A&E Wait

Right: Stewart Fleming

10:14am UK, Tuesday December 30, 2008

The widow of a man who died after a six-hour wait at an accident and emergency department has demanded answers from a hospital trust.

Father-of-two Stewart Fleming had a note from his GP requesting immediate admission because a suspected viral infection had failed to clear with antibiotics.

The 37-year-old, of Rainham, Kent, was taken to the Medway Maritime Hospital in Gillingham by his wife Sarah on December 12.

But she claimed her husband had to wait six hours before being admitted and his condition deteriorated.

He was transferred a week later to the Harefield Hospital in west London, but died on Saturday.
Medway NHS Foundation Trust said it was "saddened" to hear of Mr Fleming's death, but its emergency ward was "experiencing long waits" due to a high number of admissions.

In an interview with the Kent Messenger, Mrs Fleming said her husband should have been treated sooner.

She said: "Why wait three hours for a triage when a doctor had already done it and put in writing what was going on?

"I know the A&E department was full to bursting, there weren't chairs, there were people sitting on floors."

Mrs Fleming queried why the hospital did not act on the GP's note and treat her husband immediately.

She added: "The ICU (intensive care unit) department did their very best, I am not disputing that, once he was up there. Even on the high dependency unit they were doing their damnedest to get him to the Harefield because it is the best.

"Why was he not admitted like he was told by his GP? He had all those hours and on monitor they might have been able to stop what has happened. I am no doctor but that is how I am feeling at this time."

The GP who referred Mr Fleming to hospital has called for a full investigation.
Dr Tamil Selvan, 51, said: "I don't yet know the full details of what happened... it's early days, but we most certainly need to get to the bottom of it."

Doctors in primary care endeavour to do the best they can but when we refer patients to hospital, for whatever reason, we expect the full support of our colleagues in secondary care."