Derriford Hospital implements changes following "preventable" death of 20-year-old
Chloe Rideout died from sepsis, after being incorrectly discharged from Derriford Hospital
Derriford Hospital has apologised after a series of "preventable failings" led to the death of a 20-year-old from Coverack in Cornwall.
Chloe Rideout died from sepsis, after being incorrectly discharged from the hospital.
During an inquest in Truro, the coroner said she wouldn't have died if she'd been observed.
The family want to prevent this from happening to anyone else.
In a statement, Paul McArdle, Deputy Medical Director at University Hospitals Plymouth, said:
"Following my apology to the family during the inquest, I would like to publicly express our sincere and heartfelt apologies to Chloe’s family, on behalf of myself and the Trust for the opportunities that were missed that led to loss of continuity of care for Chloe.
"Opportunities, which had they been taken, would probably have resulted in a different outcome. At University Hospitals Plymouth we aim to give patients the highest possible standard of care and we didn’t achieve that for Chloe. We are extremely sorry for this and for the loss that Chloe’s family have endured as a consequence.
"There is nothing we can say that will change the fact that Chloe was discharged when she shouldn’t have been, and I can’t imagine how hard it must have been for Chloe’s family to relive what happened during that time. But we can, and have learned from this and are committed to doing everything we can to try to prevent an inappropriate discharge happening in the same way again. We carried out a full investigation and we have shared the outcome of this with Chloe’s family."
Derriford says it has implemented practices since 2018, and say:
"We have shared with our medical teams the learning that discharging teams need to ensure the results of all investigations and tests have been reviewed prior to a patient leaving
"We have introduced electronic prescribing to reduce the risk of incorrect prescriptions for take-away medications
"We have introduced a seven-day pharmacy service to ensure that all prescriptions to take away are dispensed by pharmacy
"We are also in the process of introducing a new ÂŁ4 million digital safety package that we hope will transform how seriously ill patients are managed within the hospital. This will go live later in the year as part of our drive to digital transformation and safer systems that support care."