Man, 85, died due to ‘dangerous overcrowding’ at Northampton General Hospital

The 85-year-old went to Northampton General Hospital just after 4pm on Wednesday afternoon with stomach pain.

He was initially seen and assessed within an hour and was asked to wait.

After a blood test suggested possible heart problems he was made to wait again to be seen by senior staff.

But he suffered a cardiac arrest and died at around 1am while still waiting.

An email from Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust’s medical director, Matthew Metcalfe, was leaked to the Health Service Journal.

It said: “Last night a patient died due entirely to the dangerous overcrowding of the department.

“The risk we have all been aware of, but may have felt hypothetical, has just happened.”

A spokeswoman for the trust said the hospital’s A&E unit had seen an average of 400 patients a day over the past few months, an increase of almost 30% on the same period last year.

The trust said in a statement: “This has inevitably had an impact on our ability to consistently provide a high standard of patient safety in our ED (Emergency Department).

“Although every effort is made to see, assess and treat patients quickly in our ED and (the hospital) has a good record in this regard.

“However, in this situation the long wait for further treatment and assessment led to an unacceptable outcome.”

Mr Metcalfe added: “We can confirm that we will be conducting a full investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death of a patient who recently attended our emergency department.

“The impact of the pressure in our emergency department and the associated delays are not yet known and will be included within the scope of our investigation.

“We have expressed our sincere apologies to the family and will share our findings with them as soon as we can.”

The hospital had said on Twitter on Wednesday afternoon that its accident and emergency department was “currently under extreme pressure”.