Catalogue of problems for London hospital

A PATIENT who was dead for over four hours before staff became aware was among a number of issues surrounding London’s North Middlesex University hospital.  Other problems included only one commode being available for 100 patients and delays in transferring patients from trolleys to beds, sometimes as long as 13 hours. 

The low number of nurses at the hospital was also highlighted with nursing levels often being less than 50 per cent of the acceptable standards.  The undiscovered dead man was in the A&E unit and the oversight was blamed on the low nursing numbers which had reduced nurse’s regular patrols of the wards.  

The findings came about after a recent inspection and the chief of the inspectors said the hospital had already made good steps to improve things since the report was made. However they will be monitoring the unit carefully for progress.