Families To Sue Over Hospital Deaths

- 26 March 2009;Eastbourne Herald

FAMILY members of the 13 people who died at the DGH following an outbreak of superbug Clostridium difficile have contacted a solicitor to take action against East Sussex Hospitals Trust.

Harman & Harman, a Kent-based solicitor that specialises in medical negligence, has taken on their case. It represented families in 2007 after 90 hospital patients at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust died from C. diff, leading to the trust's chief executive resigning.

The number of patients with the bug, which causes chronic diarrhoea in frail and elderly people, has soared at the DGH since the beginning of the year.

There have been 62 cases since January and the outbreak has now been attributed to the 027 strain, a highly toxic type that kills six out of 10 of those who contract it. The hospital had 17 people with C. diff at the time of going to press and three patients, aged 85, 89 and 91, have died because of it.

It was a contributory factor in 10 deaths and a further nine people have died who had it, although it was not a factor in their deaths.

Eastbourne MP Nigel Waterson is demanding an independent review and has written to Health Secretary Alan Johnson.

Mr Waterson said, "As a matter of urgency, I am asking the Health Secretary to check that all possible outside help is being made available to my local hospital so this outbreak can be brought to an end as soon as possible.

"This problem has been evident for at least three months. It now needs to be stopped in days rather than weeks so my elderly and frail constituents can feel totally safe going into hospital."

He wants a review to establish why the DGH has struggled to contain and control the spread of C. diff, to find out more about the people who died and when the deaths were reported and announced.

Although Mr Johnson has not yet replied, the Healthcare Commission, which investigates failing trust, said no review was planned.

It is working with the trust, as is the Health Protection Agency, which has visited the hospital.

Trust chief executive Kim Hodgson said, "This is a very distressing time for the families, for patients who are currently inpatients and for the staff that work here but I am in no doubt I would have no hesitation whatsoever to be treated here myself or in allowing a family member to be treated here."

The trust has set up a 16-bed isolation ward for people with the bug and is considering creating a 'return' ward for people who have had it in the past 30 days.

This makes them more vulnerable to infection.

Its Eastbourne hospital is already running at 92 per cent of its capacity and from March 4 was forced to close its doors to emergency admissions for three days to allow six of its eight medical wards to be decontaminated.

The trust has had few cases of the extra nasty 027 strain of C. diff before this but could not say how many people had died from the superbug at the DGH in the past three years.

The outbreak has been blamed on an increase in patients with chest infections needing to be treated with antibiotics, which kill off the good bacteria in the gut that keep C. diff bacteria in check.

By Victoria Allen