Patients have died unnecessarily because NHS chiefs put unwarranted restrictions on operations at a London heart surgery unit, a coroner has said in a report.
A senior coroner condemned an “inadequate” review ordered by NHS bosses and criticised their decision to bar the cardiac unit from taking on anything but the most straightforward planned surgery.
The review, published in March 2020, concluded that failures in care at St George’s Hospital, in Tooting, southwest London, had “probably or definitely” contributed to the deaths of 67 seriously ill patients.
However, Professor Fiona Wilcox, senior coroner for Inner West London, found after holding inquests into about 30 deaths that there was only one case where patient care could be criticised.
She has written to NHS England and NHS
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/heart-surgery-restrictions-led-to-deaths-at-london-hospital-67x2g7bnh
