King's Lynn hospital set to implement check system following inquest

Hospital bosses have said plans to implement a new system will be brought forward following the inquest into a patient’s death.

In May, Lynn’s Coroner’s Court heard that Kirsty Tolley, 28, died at Lynn’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital on February 19 last year, having been admitted nine days earlier.

The inquest was told that Kirsty had a number of health issues, including anaemia and epilepsy, and had a learning disability.

The court heard that Kirsty was admitted to hospital in February last year with “bruising and pain in her legs”, and she was later given Ferinject to treat iron deficiency.

At the time, senior coroner Jacqueline Lake raised concerns about the frequency of checks, on Kirsty before she died, including Early Warning Score (EWS) checks, which assess the degree of illness of a patient.

Mrs Lake said she was to produce a report to help prevent further deaths and suggested additional checks may have explained Kirsty’s death.

Medical director Dr Nick Lyons said the trust in charge of the hospital is implementing a new check system this November.

He said: “We are a learning organisation and have robust processes and governance in place to ensure we do learn at every opportunity.

“An example of this being that the trust has decided to bring forward plans to adopt the National Early Warning System (NEWS2) that is mandated across the NHS from April 2019 and will implement this on November 1, 2018.”