Staff shortage led to death of paediatrician from neglect, says coroner

A retired consultant paediatrician who worked for 45 years in the NHS died of neglect on a ward at Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother hospital in Margate, Kent, a coroner has concluded.David Gordon-Nesbitt, 84, suffocated after a mistake with his nasogastric tube on an understaffed ward on a Saturday night. There were only three nurses on a ward with 32 patients—two agency nurses and a newly qualified nurse who was in charge. One junior doctor was on hand and another doctor was on call outside the hospital.Gordon-Nesbitt, who had had a tumour removed from his bowel in the late 1990s, had been admitted on 21 October 2021 with a bowel obstruction, a problem that had recurred on several occasions. As usual, he was fitted with a nasogastric tube.The tube was spigotted when he was sent for an x ray the following Saturday but when he returned to the ward staff…
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