Royal Liverpool Hospital criticised by heart attack victim's family

Mar 22 2010 by Liza Williams, Liverpool Echo

The family are convinced the hospital’s actions when he first went in contributed to his death.

They want the Royal to apologise and to acknowledge mistakes were made.

Mr Jones said: “On the second visit he was in great distress but still left waiting. He was also accused of wasting public money by having twice called an ambulance.

“A second doctor finally saw him and diagnosed a major heart attack, which had become worse since it had been left untreated for a critical period.”

It is now almost a year since Mr Jones died and the family have had a number of meetings with hospital bosses.

But brother Stewart added: : “We do not feel we are not being taken seriously.

“The hospital say with hindsight they would have done things differently, but will not take responsibility.

“We are in a deep state of shock at the whole thing.

“I don’t want compensation, I don’t want to take funds out of the NHS, but we do want an apology and some kind of promise this won’t happen again to someone else.

“We believe the slow response damaged his heart and contributed to his death.”

A Royal Liverpool hospital spokesperson said: “We have already given our condolences to the family in person as we have met them several times over the past few months.

“We have talked to them in detail about what happened and given them the opportunity to ask us questions.

“We have dealt with their concerns as a formal complaint – using the national NHS complaints guidance.

“If they are not happy with the information we have given them as part of the complaints process I would encourage them to please get back in touch with us to discuss their concerns.

“We are more than happy to meet with the family again and to talk to them further about what happened.

“The family are also free to pass their complaint on to the Health Service Ombudsman who will look at it from an independent point of view.”

Mr Jones, a teacher who now lives in France, said the family had also complained about the way in which paramedics had treated his brother claiming they did not do an ECG which might have revealed the heart attack.

A spokesperson from North West Ambulance Service said a formal complaint had been received and a full investigation was undertaken.The family have been informed of the results but are free to discuss the matter further .