NHS trust contacts hundreds of families in effort at honesty over Covid hospital infections

‘If we are really going to do duty of candour properly we have to be honest with people’

More than 340 patients and families are being contacted after catching Coronavirus on the wards at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King’s Lynn (PA)

An NHS trust has become the first in the country to individually contact every family of patients who caught coronavirus while they were in hospital in a large-scale bid to be transparent over the scale of infections.

Bosses at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Kings Lynn NHS Trust have set up a team to work through hundreds of cases where patients caught coronavirus in hospital.

At least 99 patients are known to have died after becoming infected with more cases still to review.

In a unique approach to transparency the trust is sending a letter by recorded delivery to every affected patient or family where it is thought the patient picked up the virus within the hospital.

The letter offers an apology for what happened and is followed by a phone call with a nurse and a meeting with officials if families have more concerns. Some families have asked to meet the nurses who cared for their loved ones.

During the pandemic, the problem of coronavirus spreading between staff and patients in hospitals is believed to have been a major contributor to infections with tens of thousands of patients infected across the NHS. Some estimates suggest more than 8,000 may have died.

At the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, in Kings Lynn, it’s thought as many as 341 patients out of a total of 1,720 caught the virus as patients, meaning they tested positive on or after their eighth day in the hospital.

Caroline Shaw, the hospital’s chief executive, said the project was a genuine effort at putting the NHS duty of candour into action.

She told The Independent she had suggested the idea after worrying about the trust’s communication with families.

“We have had a chequered history at the trust but we are really trying to work hard on culture change and honesty and transparency with patients,” she said.

“During Covid we were so so busy, we had lots of patients. I thought if we are really going to do duty of candour properly we have to be honest with people. People did catch Covid in hospital, we can’t deny that.”

She took the idea to her board of directors who backed the move and then the hospital medical committee. She said: “I think they thought I was bonkers at first. They were worried it would set the trust back.”

But she was able to win over their support and the trust designed a full process with families offered support including a helpline and access to clinical psychology, bereavement and chaplaincy as well a commitment that the trust will publish findings from a review of all the infections.

“We feel this has been a turning point for the organisation and we have learned a lot about taking fear out of the organisation,” she said adding she believed other NHS trusts should follow suit.

“Absolutely other hospitals should be doing this. For me it’s about honesty and you learn a lot about you organisation. When you speak with relatives there are always side issues that you pick up on and learn from.”

The process is currently around 75 per cent complete.

The trust has already adapted how it operates since the height of the pandemic, including a focus on improving communication between wards and families, especially when visiting restrictions are in place. Other learning has included minimising patient movement, especially at night which it is thought contributed to the infection spread.

One of the staff involved in speaking with families was nurse Michelle Greer, who was redeployed to help run a Covid ward at the hospital during the height of the pandemic.

The 45-year-old told The Independent the experience was tough on staff but speaking to families had helped her come to terms with the trauma.

She described dealing with multiple deaths every day at the height of the crisis and being responsible for delivering the last offices, or laying out, of deceased patients.

“It was horrendous. I was laying out up to seven patients a day sometimes. I’d be laying out a patient first thing in the morning and at the end of the day. We all had to support each other and the families. It was horrendous.”

She said making the calls to families had given her “a sense of closure” adding: “I was really nervous to start doing it but actually the families were all really kind.

“They were grateful for the calls and even where their relatives had passed away, they weren’t blaming the hospital for that. They were grateful that we were being open and honest about what happened.”

Senior nurse Jo Donovan, lead for the project, said the trust had learnt from talking with families: “The staff need to do this too. They had patients passing away every day. It was grief all the time. They needed closure as well.

“We took the plunge and no formal complaints have come out of it so far.”