'Patient deaths at Lister Hospital may have been prevented'

Between April and June this year, 316 patients died while under the care of the East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust, which runs Lister.

Of these 316 deaths, 12 (4%) have undergone a formal Structured Judgment Review (SJR), with five of these escalated as patient safety incidents.

For one of these patients, there was "strong evidence of preventability" of death, the SJR concluded, with concern raised over a failure to repeat blood tests.

The deaths of three other patients were "possibly preventable", the SJR concluded, with identified problems including staffing levels on the high dependency unit, a missed diagnosis, and a delayed referral.

Additionally, investigation into four 'serious incidents' concluded that four patient deaths were "possibly preventable", and investigation into a further 'serious incident' concluded that there was "strong evidence of preventability" of another patient's death.

Problems identified in these cases included missed diagnosis, dislodged femoral line, delay in reporting radiology result, and suboptimal monitoring of a deteriorating patient.

Doctor Justin Daniels, medical director at the East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust, said: "The information in the board papers shows that there were five deaths between April and June this year which have been escalated following a structured review, for a patient safety review.

"All reported instances of harm, potential harm or poor care are reviewed. Learning is shared across the trust with relevant teams, with action plans to ensure continuous improvement.

"As you would expect, further checks are then carried out to check for any themes or trends in cases, so that we can spot potential issues."