London A&E unit at North Middlesex Hospital let patient lie dead for hours

'Inadequate': The A&E unit received the lowest possible rating
Dinendra Haria/Rex
Tom Marshall6 July 2016

A patient lay dead for more than four hours at an understaffed London A&E department before being found by staff.

The patient’s body was lying in the unit at North Middlesex University Hospital for “up to four-and-a-half hours” according to inspectors, because of a failure to carry out hourly checks.

The shocking oversight emerged in a damning report by the Care Quality Commission.

Inspectors have rated the Edmonton hospital’s A&E department as “inadequate”, the lowest score possible.

They also ruled that other care at the hospital “requires improvement”.

The CQC found there were not enough doctors to meet demand in A&E, while staff were worried about patient safety because of the competency of middle-grade doctors.

They were often left in charge overnight with no consultant presence after 11pm.

There were 22 serious incidents at the unit in the past year, many of which were due to delayed or “suboptimal” care.

The hospital has said it is “extremely sorry” for the state of the A&E department.

Sir Mike Richards, CQC chief inspector of hospitals, said: "When we inspected we found that patients were waiting for a long time to be seen, without being assessed by a doctor in the first place.

"It is worrying that we found that there were not enough experienced doctors on call to deal with demand. We have strongly encouraged the trust to engage with other organisations across the local health and social care system to resolve this challenging issue.”

It is one of the busiest A&Es in London with about 500 patients a day.

North Middlesex University Hospital medical director Dr Cathy Cale said: "We are extremely sorry for the current problems in A&E and for the long waiting times for some patients.

"We are committed to getting back to the standards that we and our patients expect and, working with our health partners, are taking all the necessary steps to address the concerns raised, particularly the shortage of doctors which lies at the heart of it."

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