Hospital admits failings over Bolton on Dearne patient's death

Val Birkhill, aged 73, died of sepsis there weeks after undergoing a procedure which involved endoscopy, at the hospital.

She was among 68 patients who either died or suffered complications after undergoing the exploratory procedure.

That led to the service being suspended at Rotherham Hospital, with patients transferred to Sheffield instead, with Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust commissioning an external review.

That was done by the Royal College of Physicians which found failures in the care of 58 of those patients, while 25 suffered “some degree of harm”, a Hospital Trust report found.

Although the RCP reported back to the Trust in January 2023, it is believed that details of the investigation have only just been made public. They were published in Hospital Trust board papers earlier this month.

The Trust said it was contacting all 68 patients or their families on 4 and 5 June to apologise and to “outline what the external review has said about their individual care.”

Specialist medical negligence lawyers at Irwin Mitchell have represented the loved ones of a patient who died - within the review time period - around three weeks after undergoing an ERCP.

Mrs Burkill, a retired hairdresser, went into hospital to have gallstones removed in 2020.

Lawyers argued she was not made aware of risks connected to the eight minute procedure.

She was discharged an hour after the procedure, but despite complaining of stomach pain, was not examined. She was returned to hospital by ambulance that night.

She was diagnosed with a a perforated bowel and developed sepsis, with her condition deteriorating, dying days later.

Her husband Garry called in Irwin Mitchell and the Trust admitted failings in the consent process for her treatment and in her discharge from hospital.

Garry said: “While she was back home in no time, she shouldn’t have been.

“That afternoon I could tell she wasn’t her usual bubbly self and when I called the hospital I was told she probably had trapped wind.

“By that night she was in absolute agony and was vomiting. I called an ambulance and Val was rushed back to hospital. She never came home.”