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Hospital sorry for texting dead man asking him to rate his A&E experience

Man was rushed to hospital after collapsing at his home

Christopher Hooton
Friday 27 February 2015 12:50 GMT
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(NHS)

A hospital has apologised to the family of a man who received a text message two days after he died asking him to rate his experience of its A&E department.

42-year-old Darren Wood collapsed at his home earlier this month and later died after being taken to Leeds' St James's Hospital.

His family have not criticised his care, but were not too thrilled to be asked to provide customer service feedback in the wake of his death all the same.

Text messages are often sent out to (living) patients following their treatment, asking them to rank the quality of care on a scale.

"We are extremely sorry for the added distress this text message caused the Wood family following their tragic bereavement," Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust said.

"This message should not have been sent and we have recently spoken to Mr Wood to apologise in person and to reassure him that we are looking into how this happened as we want to prevent another family being upset in this way."

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