Hospital Stops Admissions After ‘Substandard’ Claim

A cottage hospital has stopped admissions after repeated claims that nursing care on its wards is substandard.

Whipton Hospital in Exeter has also brought in a new matron after the Healthcare Commission upheld two separate complaints about safety, hygiene and nourishment, following the deaths of two elderly patients.

Devon Primary Care Trust (PCT) last week apologised to the families of Stan Rogers and Ron Martin, both from Exeter.

Mr Rogers, 93, was admitted to Whipton with a chest infection in November 2005. A month later, after he suffered up to seven falls at the hospital, he sustained a broken hip; the stress of the operation to repair that damage was listed by a coroner as a contributory factor in his death.

Exeter and Greater Devon Coroner Dr Elizabeth Earland recorded a verdict of accidental death, saying that, on the balance of probability, Mr Rogers would not have died when he did without the fall.

During his stay at the hospital, it was also claimed Mr Rogers was often left unwashed and not properly fed. His daughter, Jennifer Leach, has now received a full apology from the Devon Primary Care Trust, which said the care it provided for her father was “clearly not up to standard”.

Mrs Leach took the issue up with the Healthcare Commission after an inquest recorded a verdict of accidental death. In a ten-page report, the commission upheld her complaint.

The Healthcare Commission also upheld a complaint about the treatment of a second patient, Ronald Martin, 72, who experienced a similar lack of care.

Devon PCT spokesman Sally Slade said yesterday: “We do take this extremely seriously. We have launched the investigation into the complaints, we have launched the wider service review and we’ve introduced new management arrangements via a new matron from today on an interim basis.

“The matron will give us a fresh look at the service of the hospital, and we have ceased all admissions to the hospital for the period of this week.”

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