Hospital reprimanded over dead body on view after staff propped open fire door
Worthing Hospital was visited by inspectors back in July during a heatwave.
A dead body in a hospital mortuary was visible from a public footpath after staff propped open a fire door during hot weather, inspectors have found.
Human Tissue Authority (HTA) inspectors visited Worthing Hospital in West Sussex during a heatwave on July 7 and 8.
Inspectors found the mortuary office fire exit door at Worthing Hospital is “frequently opened” during periods of hot weather which “provides unrestricted access to the body store”.
“In addition, when the doors are propped open, there is a direct line of sight from a publicly accessible footpath into the body store,” inspectors said.
“Although the footpath is located at the rear of the hospital and is not frequently used, during the inspection the inspection team was able to observe a body being prepared for release from this publicly accessible area.”
It comes after health officials have said that the NHS needs to prepare for additional pressures in the summer as well as winter.
Commentators have highlighted how many NHS buildings are not prepared to withstand periods of prolonged heat, with many not having adequate air conditioning.
Meanwhile HTA inspectors also noted that while CCTV was in place, the camera monitoring the mortuary office fire exit door at Worthing Hospital was “not operational”.
In the wake of the David Fuller scandal, NHS Trusts were asked to take action to ensure all access points to mortuaries or body stores are controlled by swipe card security access and ensure there is effective CCTV coverage monitoring access to and from mortuary areas.
Fuller abused at least 100 dead women and girls in hospital mortuaries in south-east England.
During the inspection of Worthing hospital and satellite sites – St Richard’s in Chichester, West Sussex and Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton – which are run by University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust, HTA officials identified 10 major and six minor shortfalls of the HTA standards.
A University Hospitals Sussex spokesperson told the Health Service Journal (HSJ), which first reported on the HTA report, that the inspection “identified areas where our standards needed to improve”, and that most of the issues had since been fully addressed.
A University Hospitals Sussex spokesperson said: “The dignity, security, privacy and respectful care of people after death are of fundamental importance to us, and we take the findings of the Human Tissue Authority (HTA) extremely seriously, including the areas identified by the inspection where our standards needed to improve."
“The vast majority of the areas identified in July have already been addressed, including all aspects of processes and procedures where inspectors identified any potential risk of error."
“We have also made immediate improvements to strengthen security and privacy, alongside a number of other changes to the physical environment, and more widely the Trust has already begun a far-reaching programme of improving all mortuary facilities across our hospital sites."
“The Human Tissue Authority has not suspended or revoked the Trust’s licence, and we continue to work closely with the regulator to ensure the highest standards of care, dignity and respect for deceased patients and their families.”