Government responds to inquest of Northampton pensioner who died after nine-hour-wait in A&E

The under-secretary for patient safety says the NHS "must do all it can" to learn from the death of a Northampton pensioner who died following a nine-hour-wait in A&E.

Mohan Acharya died in the early hours of March 8, 2018, nine hours after arriving at the emergency department with "chest pains and shortness of breath". He was 85.

An inquest held in February 2020 heard that although the A&E department was "severely overcrowded" on the day Mr Acharya died, this did not play "a major factor in his death".

However, in his conclusion, Northamptonshire coroner Hassan Shah moved to write to the Department of Health and Social Care to highlight the case and ask them to take action to prevent future deaths.

A post-mortem revealed Mr Acharya died of cardiac arrest brought on by pneumonia and acute renal failure. However, when the 85-year-old was treated, NGH's staff misdiagnosed his chest pains as a heart condition because he showed "none of the usual signs" of pneumonia.

However, the coroner ruled that this did not play a major factor in his death, and commented that even with one-to-one care the signs of Mr Acharya's pnemonia may have been missed.

The court did hear how the extreme pressure on the emergency department led to observations of Mr Archaya's condition being missed.

In fact, on the day of the 85-year-old's admission, 450 people attended the emergency department - compared to 300 on the same day the previous year.

Now, Under Secretary of State for Patient Safety Nadine Dorries has replied to Mr Shah's letter, writing: "It is clear that the care and treatment he received was below the high standards of care we expect from the NHS and that the NHS seeks to provide

"We must do all we can to learn from the circumstances of Mr Acharya’s death to improve patient safety. I am advised that the Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust has apologised for the failings in the care provided to Mr Acharya

"I encourage the Trust to take every opportunity to learn from the circumstances of Mr Acharya’s sad death."

Nadine Dorries listed what measures she says the Government has taken to reduce NHS waiting times since 2018, including the NHS Long Term Plan in January 2019, £1.6bn in funding in 2018/19 and £145m in capital funding in 2019.

In the past two years, NGH has also completed its 60-bed emergency assessment ward.