Hospital trust ‘missed earlier opportunity to raise alarm about meningitis case’

A hospital trust has been accused of missing an earlier opportunity to alert health officials about a case of meningitis in Kent.

A patient first presented to The Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Hospital in Margate on the evening of Wednesday March 11, the BBC reported.

But the hospital did not report the case to the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) until Friday March 13 once a diagnosis had been confirmed.

By law, all suspected cases of meningitis are supposed to be reported to the UKHSA, without waiting for laboratory confirmation.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting said he is taking the matter “seriously”, but it appears the delay “did not have a material impact”.

He told LBC: “The patient came in on the Wednesday unwell. By mid-morning on Thursday, the staff suspected meningitis.

“Now at that stage, they had 24 hours within which they should have notified the UKHSA. They did so in 26 hours.

“While I can reassure people that it appears in this case that that delay did not have a material impact – we have not found evidence of onward transmission to other people through that delay that we would otherwise have traced faster – nonetheless, we have that 24-hour standard for a reason, and I am taking this seriously.”

Asked if heads would roll, Mr Streeting added: “They had already done what we asked them to do immediately in terms of improving their compliance and rapid reporting, and I have to say, beyond what happened there, the way in which the NHS trust, the universities and colleges and schools in Canterbury, and young people themselves, have responded has been exemplary.

“We’ve seen cases, confirmed cases and suspected cases, beginning to fall. That’s encouraging. I’m not complacent, we’re not out of the woods yet, but we’ve responded rapidly and I think we’ve contained this outbreak in the way that we needed to.”

East Kent Hospitals University Foundation Trust, which runs the hospital, admitted there was “an opportunity prior to diagnosis being confirmed” to notify UKHSA.

Dr Des Holden, acting chief executive at the trust, said: “Our first patient presented on the evening of Wednesday March 11.

“We recognise there was an opportunity prior to diagnosis being confirmed on Friday March 13 to notify UKHSA.

“We cannot go into the detail of individual patients’ care, but the trust has been in close contact with UKHSA since Friday March 13 to discuss the management of patients presenting with suspected meningitis.”

It comes as the trust was named as one of the first hospital trusts to be placed under the NHS Intensive Recovery programme.

The Department of Health and Social Care said the programme had identified trusts at the bottom of the NHS league tables where patients faced the longest waits for care, there were persistent financial problems and high leadership “churn”.

Two students have died in the meningitis outbreak – 18-year-old Juliette Kenny, who was described by her family as “fit, healthy and strong” before her death, and a University of Kent student.

As of 12.30pm on Tuesday, 20 laboratory cases had been confirmed, with a further two under investigation, bringing the total to 22, according to the UKHSA.

This was down from Monday when 20 cases were confirmed and three were under investigation.

Officials started vaccinating University of Kent students on Wednesday March 18.

NHS Kent and Medway said that by 11am on March 24, 13,386 doses of antibiotics had been given out – along with 10,627 vaccines.

All patients in the Kent outbreak have required hospital admission.

Nine were admitted to the intensive care unit, where four remain.

A UKHSA spokesperson said: “UKHSA has well-established processes for dealing with single cases or cases where there are small numbers of people affected including offering antibiotic prophylactics to household or family members or people that have had an overnight stay during the incubation period.

“The events of Saturday night with acutely unwell individuals triggered a large-scale public health response on Sunday as the information emerged.”