Increasingly high mortality rates at Southend Hospital 'a concern'

A report was commissioned by Castle Point and Rochford Clinical Commissioning Group to review how deaths are monitored at Southend Hospital after more deaths were recorded than expected.

The report stated that documents relating to mortality and actions surrounding mortality needed to be improved.

It comes after Professor Brian Jarman, who helped expose Mid-Staffs hospital scandal last year, where hundreds died due to poor care, accused the NHS of hiding 19,000 “suspect” deaths by excluding some of them from official statistics.

Southend Hospital was said to be 17 per cent above the national average for such deaths. Latest available figures show in 2015/16 there were 286 more deaths than expected at the hospital.

The Summary Hospital-Level Mortality Indicator (SHMI) relates to deaths of all patients admitted to hospital and 30 days post-discharge.

The clinical commissioning group report found records of discussions about mortality problems were not consistent. The report said there had been issues for a period of time which “overall appears to have had minimal challenge”. It adds: “There was ongoing deterioration of SHMI over the year despite improvement plans and related reviews.

“Overall there was evidence of SHMI discussion in several committees. However, evidence of actions by clinical commissioning groups was less frequently documented.

“There is an opportunity to improve documentation particularly to evidence significant discussion and actions when there are significant quality performance concerns.”

The findings follow a Care Quality Commission report in 2016 which said: “Mortality meetings took place but they did not follow a consistent format, and actions to support learning lacked timescales.”

Neil Rothnie, Southend Hospital’s medical director, said: “The Trust has implemented the National Guidance on Learning from Deaths framework and regularly reports to the Trust and Mid Essex, Southend, Basildon and Thurrock boards.”