Feature: Patient lay dead for 4.5 hours at major London hospital, report reveals

A shock report Wednesday painted a grim picture of one of Britain's busiest hospitals here.

Inspectors carried out an unannounced visit to the urgent and emergency care department at London's North Middlesex University Hospital and have since issued a damning report.

One patient had lain dead in the department for four and a half hours before being discovered, said the report by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

Another patient with a deteriorating condition was being tended to in a hospital corridor, with the nurse unable to find the patient's records. One of the CQC team reviewed blood tests and the patient was moved to a resuscitation bay for immediate treatment.

The CQC's chief inspector of hospitals in official findings published Wednesday rated the service at the hospital as inadequate.

The 450-bed hospital, with a staff of 3,000, serves a large area of north London stretching from Enfield and Haringey to Waltham Forest.

The chief inspector of hospitals, Sir Mike Richards, said: "People going to the emergency department at the hospital are entitled to a service that provides safe, effective, compassionate, and high quality care. 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."

"North Middlesex University Hospital is one of the busiest Accident and Emergency departments in London, so it is worrying that we found that there were not enough experienced doctors on call to deal with demand."

Inspectors raised concerns there were not enough middle grade doctors and consultants on duty. Doctors from other areas of the hospital were slow to come and review patients and were not supportive of staff in the emergency department, said the report.

The rapid assessment and treatment of patients arriving by ambulance was led and undertaken by nurses without input from a doctor.

The report said hospital management was seen by staff as overbearing and unsupportive, a culture that meant staff did not feel comfortable raising concerns. It also found a lack of respect and dignity in the way patients were treated on the medical wards, with patients' needs not always met appropriately.

The hospital has supplied an action plan setting out the steps it will take to address the concerns identified in a warning notice and report issued by the CQC.

Last week, inspectors returned to the accident and emergency department to check on steps taken by the hospital to deal with CQC's main concerns found on the visit in April.

"Inspectors will return in the near future to check that the required improvements have been made and are being sustained," said the CQC spokesman.

Richards said: "We have already seen some progress since that original inspection." Endit