Coroner will write to hospital bosses over Stafford Hospital care

A coroner will write to hospital bosses over the "shortcomings" and "fragmentation" of care received by a patient who died at Stafford Hospital.

Andrew Haigh, coroner for South Staffordshire, said he would also tell management at Mid-Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust of his concerns over mismanagement of medical records after he recorded a narrative verdict into the death of 80-year-old David Studholme.

Mr Studholme who died on May 25 last year, would have a greater survival chance had he received an earlier referral, Mr Haigh said.

He died as a result of a haemorrhage because of a stomach ulcer. He also had an abdominal aortic aneurysm - swelling of a large blood vessel.

Dr Pradip Singh, a consultant at Mid-Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, told the inquest at Cannock: "The medical notes for this patient are shambolic. There is no sequence and there has been a fragmentation of care with too many people getting involved."

Coroner Andrew Haigh said: "Dr Singh...says there should have been an earlier referral to a gastrologist and therefore an earlier diagnosis and treatment of the ulcer. That would have been preferable, and I think he would have had a greater chance of surviving. There have been shortcomings in care."