Paper referral delayed specialist care before man's death

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By Erin Dean

Specialist care for a man who died from sickle cell disease was probably delayed by the lack of an electronic medical record system at a hospital, a coroner has warned.

A referral to the haematology team about Adegboye Mukaila took over 24 hours to be acted on after it was printed out and put in a tray which the on-call registrar checked “intermittently”.

The team at Darent Valley Hospital in Kent also could not access the 35-year-old’s previous clinical history and had to call the hospital where he usually received care.

Catherine Wood, coroner for Kent and Medway, said the lack of electronic health records “would undoubtedly lead to a future risk of death for others”.

“Access to electronic notes at the earliest opportunity would make it far easier for clinical staff to provide appropriate care and treatment,” she said in a prevention of future deaths report (POFD).

But she also found that these issues did not more than minimally or trivially contribute to Mukaila’s death.