Dudley hospital facing prosecution after death of two patients 'exposed to harm'

Comes two months after inspection found emergency department to be requiring improvement

Russells Hall Hospital, Dudley (Google)

An NHS trust is facing prosecution after the deaths of two patients who were allegedly exposed to "significant risk of avoidable harm” at Dudley’s Russells Hall Hospital.

The Care Quality Commission said it was bringing the action against the Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust after it was accused of breaching the Health and Social Care Act.

The trust will now appear before the town’s magistrates court on Wednesday.

It comes after the CQC inspected the site’s emergency services in February and found them to be requiring improvement.

In a damning report, the commission said patients arriving at the hospital by ambulance faced an increasing number of delays of more than 30 minutes between June and December last year.

The watchdog said the hospital should also consider taking a more “proactive and integrated approach with regards to the management of the risks associated with ambulance offload delays”.