Man falsely told of death of father

A catastrophic error has been brought to light by the West Herts Hospitals Trust (WHHT) in a recent meeting after a man was wrongly told his father had died. The serious incident was brought up in January’s Trust meeting. The man was told by a nurse that his father had passed away and he was also taken to view the wrong body. Professor Tracey Carter, Chief Nurse said: “We have offered our sincere apologies to the two families involved with this incident. “Our nurse made an extremely rare, human error which had a tragic impact on the families of both patients.  The staff member was extremely distressed that they made this error. “We have reiterated to our staff about the importance of double-checking the name of a patient before calling relatives and at the point they arrive at the hospital.” Richard Harrington MP said: “This must have been horrible for the family involved and is completely unacceptable. I will be meeting the Trust’s new Chief Executive soon and asking exactly how this happened. I have regular meetings with the Trust and will be raising this with them personally.” From now on, WHHT officials have asked the ward to produce a simple flow chart to assist staff in checking that they are calling the right family to share bad news and that on arrival at the hospital they confirm the details of the deceased prior to viewing.