Alcohol, drug and medication related deaths

Concerns summary Home Office guidance for selling reportable poisons fails to adequately advise online sellers on identifying purchases for self-harm, leading vendors to unknowingly facilitate suicides. Additionally, dangerous websites promoting suicide methods and poison sourcing are readily accessible.

Concerns summary Home Office guidance for selling reportable poisons fails to adequately advise online sellers on identifying purchases for self-harm, leading vendors to unknowingly facilitate suicides. Additionally, dangerous websites promoting suicide methods and poison sourcing are readily accessible.

Concerns summary Private ambulance staff at a music event lacked adequate training for drug-affected patients and standard equipment, with unclear responsibility for pre-alert calls to hospitals for seriously unwell individuals.

Concerns summary Inadequate information sharing with GPs risks patients receiving either no medication or excessive, duplicative prescriptions, posing a significant safety concern.

Concerns summary Supported accommodation staff had unclear medication supervision roles and failed to communicate critical welfare concerns about a deteriorating resident to the mental health team, hindering proper assessment.

Concerns summary The Trust's patient safety framework, including incident reporting and mortality review processes, failed to identify and investigate a significant incident, risking future deaths from unaddressed sub-optimal practice.

Concerns summary The practice failed to conduct sufficient long-term review and oversight of a patient's long-term opiate prescription, despite the associated risks, indicating a lack of detailed planning for such patients.

Concerns summary Unregulated online pharmacies easily sell prescription-only and controlled drugs, lacking patient verification, dosage guidance, and safeguards against misuse, exposing vulnerable individuals to unsafe medications.

Concerns summary Transport for London (TfL) has not implemented concrete plans to mitigate risks to intoxicated passengers, despite recognizing the issue and encouraging public transport use by impaired individuals.

Concerns summary Significant waiting lists for mental health therapies, including Interpersonal Therapy, are preventing patients from accessing essential support in a timely manner due to demand exceeding commissioned capacity.

Concerns summary The hospital failed to adopt national safety recommendations for paracetamol dosage in low-bodyweight patients, leading to overdose risks due to inadequate prescribing alerts, estimated weight entry, and insufficient staff training.

Concerns summary The NHS Pathways system's limited mental health triage options inadequately assess serious mental health crises, leading to low priority categorisation and significant delays in ambulance response for at-risk patients.

Concerns summary Hospital staff experienced frequent Naloxone shortages leading to delayed administration and demonstrated limited awareness of opioid toxicity risks in patients with kidney impairment.

Concerns summary A patient experienced significant delays receiving critical treatment despite immediate recognition of their life-threatening condition. The hospital's subsequent learning from this event has not been shared nationally.

Concerns summary Inadequate guidance exists for discharging overly sedated patients with new oxygen needs from hospital to a non-nursing care home, compounded by missing critical information in discharge letters.

Concerns summary The emergency department was understaffed, leading to missed vital observations and delayed antibiotic administration. Inadequate staff training on adult onset asthma and ineffective safety netting advice contributed to the death.

Concerns summary A national lack of knowledge and guidelines for Severe Invasive Soft Tissue Infections, combined with ineffective training and an absence of an audit trail for omitted medication doses, creates significant patient safety risks.

Concerns summary Probation staff lack access to specialist medical reports and adequate training on neurodiverse conditions, hindering effective supervision. A loophole also prevents unactioned court sentences from being referred back for review.

Concerns summary A significant delay in commencing CPR occurred due to a lack of shared understanding of its urgency and an uncoordinated response among detention officers and a nurse. No clear protocols define emergency roles.

Concerns summary The severe interaction between amitriptyline, paroxetine, and ivabradine is poorly understood, not flagged by prescribing software, and prescribers lack full awareness, posing a significant toxicity risk.

Concerns summary The hospital lacks a system to provide written information or counselling to patients, or their families, about new drug side-effects, potential complications, or actions to take, including for those without capacity.

Concerns summary Poor information sharing between ambulance service and police, including incorrect call status and police not being given ETAs or asked about scene presence, led to significant delays in patient care. The lack of police-to-hospital conveyance options for urgent cases is also a concern.

Concerns summary Critical ambulance response delays, caused by extensive hospital handover times, prevented timely conveyance of a patient to hospital, which an expert stated would have prevented their death.

Concerns summary Ketamine is easily accessible, perceived as less harmful by teenagers, and its highly addictive nature causes severe, irreversible bladder damage (ketamine cystitis), trapping users in a cycle of dependence.

Concerns summary The online prescription system lacks critical safety features, including access to patient records, consent for GP sharing, and suicide screening, enabling unsafe medication access.