"A patient who suffered a heart attack on a hospital ward died because clerical staff had mistakenly inserted a Do Not Attempt Resuscitation form into his medical notes. Peter Clarke was not treated by doctors after going into cardiac arrest as a nurse had spotted the form in his files and, even though it was blank and had not been filled in, told other ward staff he should not be revived. The blunder emerged at an inquest into the incident at Derby Hospitals NHS Trust, where bosses revealed staff had been 'routinely' placing the forms alongside medical records before they had been correctly signed and witnessed by senior doctors. The errors go against the usual Trust policy on using the forms and mean the documents were inserted into files without the consent of patients. It has affected an unknown number of patients and it is not known how long the practice was going on. - Daily MailThis is the blog for CARG, the Coronary Artery Rehabilitation Group, based in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. It will contain items of interest to CARG's own members and anybody else interested in the latest news about rehabilitation and heart-related matters. Canadian charitable number: 89675 0163 RR 0001 || e-mail: carg.ca@gmail.com || website: carg.ca || Blog disclaimer
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Patient dies in hospital after 'do not resuscitate' form is mistakenly put in his files (UK)
"A patient who suffered a heart attack on a hospital ward died because clerical staff had mistakenly inserted a Do Not Attempt Resuscitation form into his medical notes. Peter Clarke was not treated by doctors after going into cardiac arrest as a nurse had spotted the form in his files and, even though it was blank and had not been filled in, told other ward staff he should not be revived. The blunder emerged at an inquest into the incident at Derby Hospitals NHS Trust, where bosses revealed staff had been 'routinely' placing the forms alongside medical records before they had been correctly signed and witnessed by senior doctors. The errors go against the usual Trust policy on using the forms and mean the documents were inserted into files without the consent of patients. It has affected an unknown number of patients and it is not known how long the practice was going on. - Daily Mail
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