A CORONER has called for action after a hospital failed to check a woman s heartbeat when she fainted, and who later died following heart surgery. Senior coroner for Brighton and Hove Veronica Hamilton-Deeley has sent a rare report for the preventions of future deaths to an NHS trust, following the death of Janet Willcock on November 21 last year. Mrs Willcock fainted on August 12 and suffered a head injury and a fractured wrist in the fall. The 61-year-old went to A and E at the Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath, but there was no evidence staff examined her heart with a stethoscope, according to Ms Hamilton-Deeley s report.
NHS bosses want to build a temporary two-storey extension to the accident and emergency department at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton. The modular building would be linked to the existing A&E department and would enable medics to treat more patients. The building would be an “interim measure” and stay until completion of the £485 million modernisation of the Royal Sussex site although no date was given by hospital bosses. University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the Royal Sussex, said: “The principal purpose of this facility is to supplement the facilities of the main A&E department, which requires additional capacity and has been severely overstretched by the current caseload of Covid 19 infections.