Susan Warby death: 'Worrying accounts' over hospital's care

The family of Horace Nunn said it was not told by the hospital of any problems with his care for two months

More families have come forward with "worrying accounts" of allegedly poor care received at West Suffolk Hospital where a woman died in August 2018.

Susan Warby died five weeks after undergoing bowel surgery. An inquest has heard there were blunders in her treatment.

Her family's lawyers said other families had subsequently contacted them also reporting concerns.

The hospital said it encouraged anyone with concerns to contact the hospital.

It said it would not comment on Mrs Warby's case until the inquest had concluded.

Delayed diagnosis

One of the families that has since come forward, said their relative experienced failures in care that were not disclosed by the hospital until two months later, lawyers said.

Horace Nunn, 80, was left paralysed after a delayed diagnosis of an epidural haematoma.

Multiple families have come forward with "worrying" stories of failures in patient care, lawyers from Irwin Mitchell said

He was admitted to West Suffolk Hospital at 17:53 GMT on 3 March 2016 after collapsing at home in "severe pain". He was not diagnosed though until 10:50 the following day.

He died five months later and coroner Nigel Parsley ruled in March 2019 that Mr Nunn had received "sub-optimal" care from the hospital, although the haematoma was unlikely to have been the direct cause of his death.

A hospital investigation found there were delays in his diagnosis and it had failed to escalate his case, despite symptoms including loss of sensation.

An external expert, brought in as part of the investigation, found that if Mr Nunn's condition had been diagnosed earlier he may not have been paralysed.

A West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust spokeswoman said it sent a letter to Mr Nunn's family when a serious incident investigation was opened after concerns were raised by its staff two months later.

Gurpreet Lalli, from Irwin Mitchell, representing the families, said: "We are continuing to be instructed by a number of families who have concerns about what happened to their loved ones while under the care of the trust. Some of the first-hand accounts we continue to hear are worrying."

She said it was "of great concern" that complaints about the hospital were continuing to emerge.