Inquest concludes student nurse in Buckinghamshire died of 'natural causes'
Zoe Bell passed away on Christmas Eve after waiting 12 hours in A&E, at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Aylesbury
Last updated 19th Dec 2024
An inquest into the death of a 28-year-old student nurse - who died from sepsis at the hospital in Aylesbury where she worked - has found she died of 'natural causes'.
The inquest also heard how there was "insufficient bed stock" at Stoke Mandeville at the time.
Zoe Bell died on December 24 2022, she had been working shifts at the hospital.
Giving evidence today, Andrew McLaren, chief medical officer at Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust, said there was "a number of factors that contributed to the issues that night", including a lack of observations on Ms Bell.
Ms Bell's father, stepmother and stepbrother were all in attendance on Thursday, alongside several of her friends.
The inquest heard that Ms Bell arrived at the hospital at 10.14pm on December 23 and was not initially assessed by doctors until 7.30am the following morning.
Mr McLaren told Buckinghamshire Coroner's Court: "There were a number of interactions with Zoe which we accept were not fully documented.
"It wasn't that nobody was coming to see her (Zoe), but they were making clinical decisions at the time that she was OK."
Mr McLaren said the hospital's A&E department would come under intense pressure because of not having enough beds to admit patients.
He said: "It was recognised that we were a hospital with insufficient bed stock."
Bed numbers at Stoke Mandeville have now improved following the opening of a new hospital ward.
Mr McLaren said there had been an "incredibly rapid deterioration" in Ms Bell's condition after 8.30am on December 24 which surprised hospital doctors, who had said she seemed fine at that time.
She was taken into surgery at 3pm later that day and was pronounced dead at 6.45pm after suffering from influenza and blood poisoning, according to family solicitors Leigh Day.
Asked by counsel representing Ms Bell's family what steps the trust had taken since her death, Mr McLaren said the hospital had stopped using agency staff and increased staffing numbers in the A&E department, and had increased the presence of senior medical doctors on the wards.
He told the inquest the working environment had "changed considerably", including the department team now having huddles every two hours and encouraging reviews of sepsis documentation.
Sepsis screening in the department was at 92% in September 2024.
Mr McLaren added: "We are an organisation that does try to learn from each and every event."