Half of people dying within four days of hospital admission lack input from senior doctors, inquiry finds

doi:10.1136/bmj.b4539

Published 5 November 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b4539
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;339:b4539

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Half of people dying within four days of hospital admission lack input from senior doctors, inquiry finds

Susan Mayor

¹ London

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The care of half the people who die within four days of admissionto hospitals in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland lacks involvementof senior doctors, leading to delays in provision of appropriatecare, a new survey says.

The report, from the National Confidential Enquiry into PatientOutcome and Death (NCEPOD), reviewed the care of 3153 peoplewho died within four days of admission to hospital.

Expert reviewers who assessed the patients’ records, togetherwith further information provided by hospital staff, found thatconsultants were not involved in making a diagnosis in justover half (53%) of the cases. And there was a clinically importantdelay in first review by a consultant in 25% of cases. Consultantinvolvement was less likely in the evenings and at night.

Lack of involvement of and assessment by senior doctors wasconsidered to be an important factor contributing to the inquiry’sfinding that the . . . [Full text of this article]

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