Alison Christian, age 36, died two days before Christmas in 2005 at the Northern General Hospital, Sheffield, because of gross failure by the NHS

Doomed by NHS 'gross failure' - Telegraph

Extracts:

"A "gross failure to provide basic medical attention" by NHS staff contributed to the death of a 36-year-old mother of four, an inquest found yesterday.

On two occasions the seriousness of her symptoms should have been recognised when there was time to save her life, the coroner said.

Alison Christian died two days before Christmas in 2005 at the Northern General Hospital, Sheffield, of a naturally occurring duodenal ulcer which had perforated.

When doctors realised how ill she was, her condition was "beyond help", said Christopher Dorries, the coroner for South Yorkshire West."

"Mr Dorries found that her discharge on Dec 20 "without appropriate inquiry or examination" and the failures of the deputising service on the afternoon of Dec 22 "amounted to a gross failure to provide basic medical attention to a person in a dependent condition whose condition was such to show that she obviously needed it".

Ms Christian had four sons, the youngest of whom was six when she died.

Keith Bushnell, managing director of the out-of-hours service Primecare, said the company "acknowledges this consultation fell short of rigorous standards expected in light of the training provided to our triage nurses and therefore was not of the required standard expected of our services. The triage nurse is no longer working with Primecare.""

Alison Christian and her partner will have paid a lot of money into the NHS in their taxes over the years. - Then when they needed help, they didn't get it...)o:

And it looks as though the only sanction applied to that negligent triage nurse has been to lose her job with Primecare! - I wonder if she is now working somewhere else in the NHS...)o: