3:13pm Friday 12th March 2010
The Royal Sussex County Hospital has introduced "major changes" to its nursing care after a coroner said a catalogue of failings led to the deaths of two patients, its chief nurse said today.
Brian Waller, 72, died after falling out of bed at the Brighton hospital in April last year, while a month later Edward Warneford, 66, died in the same ward after choking on his false teeth.
Mr Warneford's sister, April Moss, said staff did not even realise he was wearing dentures when he choked on them as he ate, causing him to have a fatal heart attack.
She said today: "His care notes had been made but not adhered to, or only partially completed. Some of them were virtually illegible.
"We still can't get to the bottom of the last 25 minutes of his life. He was supposed to have been fed as he was in there in the first place to get him to eat properly but it seems that he was alone."
Mrs Moss, 62, from Gosport, Hampshire, said her brother, a former engineer who lived in Hove, was admitted to hospital due to his alcohol problems.
She added: "We were concerned from the day he went in. The only time something was done for him was when we complained.
"We met with hospital staff yesterday and they did their best to assure us things were changing and they were addressing their shortcomings. We only hope they do change things so these sort of mistakes don't happen again."
Mr Waller, who was being treated for heart problems, fell out of his hospital bed despite wearing a wrist band with "risk of falls" written on it.
He landed on his head, breaking his neck and suffering a massive bleed on his brain which led to his death six days later.
It was later discovered one of the guard rails on his bed had been left down.
At inquests into the two men's deaths, coroner Veronica Hamilton-Deeley strongly criticised the Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust and said changes needed to be made at the hospital.
Sherree Fagge, chief nurse for Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals, admitted staff could have done better.
She said in a statement: "The circumstances surrounding the deaths of these two patients were very different.
"We are however profoundly aware that for both Mr Waller and Mr Warneford we could have done better and we have met with both their families to apologise, listen to their concerns and assure them that lessons have been learned."
"We have introduced some major changes focused completely on the quality of our nursing care.
"For example, every week, all of our most senior nurses including myself are working on the wards undertaking direct patient care alongside frontline nursing staff."
The nurse added: "What I see when I am on the wards is that the majority of our nurses are working hard and carrying out their duties with the kindness and compassion we would want for our own families but we are also using this as a way of teaching our less experienced nurses and picking up issues before they become problems."
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