Deaths spark investigation at Walsall Manor Hospital

There were 17 deaths linked to renal failure in January and February this year, it has now emerged.

The unusually-high total raised concerns among health chiefs and sparked a review at the hospital.

Bosses said the review had so far confirmed seven of the patients received "appropriate" care before they died, but the other 10 cases are still being examined to see whether or not they could have been given better care.

A report said the Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust, which runs the Manor, received an "alert for January and February 2019 (acute and unspecified renal failure) is under investigation".

The trust was given an "inadequate" rating by health watchdog the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in 2017 and bosses are awaiting the outcome of the latest inspection.

Chiefs say they will be updating the Learning from Deaths policy following recommendations from NHS Improvement "following local observations" and "CQC risk identified during their inspection".

However, the report said hospital deaths had fallen compared to the last two years.

There are around 45,000 deaths a year linked to kidney disease in the UK, according to NHS figures.

Dr Matthew Lewis, the trust's medical director, said: “The alert related to 17 deaths attributed to renal failure in January and February 2019.

"So far, the review has confirmed that seven of the patients had received the appropriate level of care. Ongoing work will consider whether there were any issues in the management of the other cases. In addition we are looking at updating the Learning from Deaths policy to reflect changes in national guidelines.”

Councillor Rose Martin, head of adult social care at Walsall Council, said: "I'm sure the Manor Hospital will be looking into this matter very intensively to find out what has caused this.

"Let's hope they get to the bottom of it as soon as possible for the benefit of other patients."