Prevention of Future Deaths reports · 2019

Theresa Feehan

Regulation 28 report to prevent future deaths, reference 2019-0070, written 27 Feb 2019. A coroner writes one of these when an inquest reveals a risk that could cause further deaths unless something changes.

Date of report27 Feb 2019
Reference2019-0070
DeceasedTheresa Feehan
CoronerFiona Wilcox
Coroner areaLondon Inner (West)
CategoryCommunity health care
Sourcejudiciary.uk record · original PDF
Responses published1

The report

Text recovered by OCR from a scanned PDF. OCR is imperfect: check anything you rely on against the source PDF. Reproduced verbatim, including the scan's own layout.

REGULATION 28: REPORT TO PREVENT FUTURE DEATHS

REGULATION 28 REPORT TO PREVENT FUTURE DEATHS

THIS REPORT IS BEING SENT TO:

= = B ision

151 Buckingham Palace Rd, Victoria
London.
SWIW 9SZ

General Practitioner,

Lisson Grove Health Centre,
Gateforth Street,

London.

NW8 8EG

General Practitioner,

Lisson Grove Health Centre,
Gateforth Street,

London.

NW8 8EG

1 | CORONER

| am Dr Fiona J Wilcox, HM Senior Coroner, for the Coroner Area of Inner West London

2 | CORONER’S LEGAL POWERS

| make this report under paragraph 7, Schedule 5, of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 and regulations 28
and 29 of the Coroners (Investigations) Regulations 2013.

3 | INVESTIGATION and INQUEST

On the 15" January 2019, evidence was heard touching the death of Theresa Margaret Feehan. Mrs
Feehan had been found deceased at home on 12'" March 2018. She was 58 years old at the time of her
death. The findings of the court were as follows:

Medical Cause of Death

1 (a) Aspiration Pneumonia
(b) Ingestion of Amitriptyline and Dihydrocodeine

How, when and where the deceased came by her death:

Mrs Feehan suffered with oxygen and steroid dependant allergic asthma. This was subject to regular severe
exacerbations. She was also prescribed potentially respiratory compromising medication, including
amitriptyline, clonazepam and chlorpheniramine. On the 10/3/2018 she saw her GP with a further severe
exacerbation of her asthma. Dihydrocodeine was prescribed in an attempt to control her pleuritic pain and
respiratory distress. She had recently been prescribed morphine in hospital.

On 12/3/2018 she was found at home deceased by her son, and found to have toxic levels of amitriptyline
and dihydrocodeine which had contributed to her death in association with her underlying lung disease.
There was no evidence of suicidal intent nor suspicious findings.

Conclusion of the Coroner as to the death:

Natural causes in combination with side effects of prescribed medication.

Circumstances of the Death.

During the evidence it became apparent that the active problem list on the GP records was out of date and
missing many relevant, serious medical conditions. There was little correlation between the active problem
list and the list of prescribed medication.

Drugs potentially dangerous to Mrs Feehan because of their respiratory depressant effects, especially when
combined with other medication, such as clonazepam which had originally apparently been prescribed for
restless legs, had been continued without challenge despite Mrs Feehan having had medication reviews.
There was no proper recording of the reason or rationale for the dose of amitriptyline that she was taking.

It was not even recorded on the active problem list that she was on home oxygen.

Requests for information from the practice by the court had been managed by administrative staff and not
properly responded to despite the eventual service of two summonses. This raised the concern in the
evidence that other patients may not have their notes and prescribing properly reviewed and that admin staff
may be undertaking tasks without proper supervision such that other clinical issues may arise and go
unrecognised.

The evidence suggested that the practice doctors appeared to assume that as Mrs Feehan was so often
admitted to hospital her repeat medications were being reviewed by the hospital.

Concerns of the Coroner:
1. That the system of medication review within the practice is inadequate putting patients at risk.

2. That the recording and coding of relevant medical history on the active problem list is
inadequate thus putting patients at risk

3. That there appears to be little correlation between the medication list and the active problem list
such that it would make it difficult for a reviewing doctor to understand why a patient was ona
particular medication and thus challenge its continuation or dosage appropriately, thus putting
patients at risk.

4. That there appears to be no clear system for identifying medications which may interact to the
detriment of the patient or no system to address such issues should they arise such as reducing
or stopping redundant treatment thus putting patients at risk.

5. That administration systems within the practice should be audited to determine whether they are
adequate and the work of the administrative staff sufficiently supervised, such that patients are
not put at risk.

ACTION SHOULD BE TAKEN

In my opinion action should be taken to prevent future deaths and | believe you [AND/OR your organisation]
have the power to take such action. It is for each addressee to respond to matters relevant to them.

YOUR RESPONSE

You are under a duty to respond to this report within 56 days of the date of this report. I, the coroner, may
extend the period.

Your response must contain details of action taken or proposed to be taken, setting out the timetable for
action. Otherwise you must explain why no action is proposed.

COPIES and PUBLICATION

| have sent a copy of my report to the Chief Coroner and to the following Interested Persons :

And via email ts

And to Mrs Feehan’s cv rte

| am also under a duty to send the Chief Coroner a copy of your response.

The Chief Coroner may publish either or both in a complete or redacted or summary form. He may send a
copy of this report to any person who he believes may find it useful or of interest. You may make
representations to me, the coroner, at the time of your response, about the release or the publication of your
response by the Chief Coroner.

27" February 2019

Professor Fiona J Wilcox
HM Senior Coroner Inner West London

Westminster Coroner’s Court
65, Horseferry Road

London

SW1P 2ED

Honorary Professor QMUL School of Medicine and Dentistry

Responses

1 response published against this report on judiciary.uk. A response is a body's written reply to the coroner's concerns; publication is at the discretion of the Chief Coroner's office, so an absent response does not mean nobody replied.

Response from Care Quality Commission (PDF)
Dr Fiona J Wilcox 
HM Senior Coroner Inner West London 
Westminster Coroner’s Court 
65 Horseferry Road 
London 
SW1P 2ED 

20 January 2020 

Care Quality Commission 
Citygate 
Gallowgate 
Newcastle upon Tyne 
NE1 4PA 

Telephone: 03000 616161 
Fax: 03000 616171 

www.cqc.org.uk 

Care Quality Commission 
Our Reference:  ENQ1-8222217545 (formerly MRR1-6586165592) 

Dear HM Coroner 

Prevention of future death report following inquest into the death of 
Mrs Theresa Margaret Feehan 

On 24 April 2019 we wrote to you in response to your prevention of future death 
report issued following the death of Mrs Theresa Margaret Feehan.  

In our response we provided provisional information following our focused inspection 
of Lisson Grove Health Centre in March 2019. This inspection had been triggered by 
the concerns raised in your prevention of future death report. We made clear in our 
letter the findings were at draft stage and the provider had not at that stage had an 
opportunity to challenge the findings, in line with our fairness obligations under the 
public law principles. I am now writing to update you. 

The provider made significant challenges to the findings we made. We accepted 
those challenges and decided there was no basis for us to take enforcement action. 
We also carried out a full and comprehensive rated inspection in June 2019. I attach 
copies of the reports of both of these inspections. They are also available on our 
website under the “All reports” link at https://www.cqc.org.uk/location/1-549237033.  

As you will see, we ultimately did not find concerns in the areas identified in the 
prevention of future death report. We rated Lisson Grove Health Centre ‘Good’ 
overall, with a few areas to address in relation to childhood immunisations and 
cervical screening. 

I hope this information is helpful and updates and clarifies our findings after the 
inspections.  

Should you need to contact me further about this matter you can contact me through 
our National Customer Service Centre using the details below: 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Telephone:   03000 616161 

Email:  

enquiries@CQC.org.uk 

Write to: 

Care Quality Commission 
Citygate 
Gallowgate 
Newcastle upon Tyne 
NE1 4PA 

it would be helpful if you could include the reference number ENQ1-8222217545. 

Yours sincerely 

Inspection Manager 
CQC PMS London Region 

Enc. 

Cc. Lisson Grove Health Centre

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