Prevention of Future Deaths reports · 2019

Charles Williamson

Regulation 28 report to prevent future deaths, reference 2019-0326, written 30 Sep 2019. A coroner writes one of these when an inquest reveals a risk that could cause further deaths unless something changes.

Date of report30 Sep 2019
Reference2019-0326
DeceasedCharles Williamson
CoronerAlison Mutch
Coroner areaManchester South
CategoryHospital Death (Clinical Procedures and medical management) related deaths
Sourcejudiciary.uk record · original PDF
Responses published2

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: Secretary of State for Health,
Mayor of Greater Manchester, GM Health and Social Care Partnership
CORONER

| am Alison Mutch, Senior Coroner, for the Coroner Area of Greater
Manchester South

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 6 June 2019 | commenced an investigation into the death of Charles
Williamson.
The investigation concluded on the 25" September 2019 and the
conclusion was one of Accidental death. The medical cause of death
was 1a) Urinary tract infection on a background of

catheterisation;1b) Traumatic brain injury; and 2) Hospital acquired
pneumonia

CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE DEATH
Charles Williamson fell in Portugal suffering a significant
traumatic brain injury. He was repatriated to England and
admitted to Wythenshawe Hospital. A scan identified an
enlargement of the chronic subdural haematoma. A drainage
operation was performed at Saiford Royal Hospital. He was
moved back to Wythenshawe subsequently. A scan on 16!
February 2019 showed a recurrence of the chronic subdural
haematoma. A further successful drainage procedure was
undertaken at Salford Royal Hospital. He was subsequently
again returned to Wythenshawe Hospital. On 18"" March 2019
further tests concluded with a MR scan showing a likely infection
in the brain. He was transferred to Salford Royal Hospital for a

craniotomy. He was on antibiotics for 6 weeks initially at Salford
Royal Hospital and then at Wythenshawe. He was transferred to
the neuro-rehabilitation unit at Trafford on 17" April 2019 he
continued to deteriorate with confusion and loss of mobility. He
was catheterised as a consequence. He showed signs of an
infection which was a urinary tract infection and a pneumonia.
He was treated with antibiotics. He continued to decline and died
at Tameside General Hospital on 5" June 2019.

CORONER'S CONCERNS

During the course of the inquest the evidence revealed matters giving rise
to concern. In my opinion there is a risk that future deaths will occur
unless action is taken. In the circumstances it is my statutory duty to
report to you.

The MATTERS OF CONCERN are as follows. —

The inquest heard that following neurological incidents such as those
sustained by Mr Williamson it will often be the case that a key to returning
to baseline or closer to baseline is effective and early neuro-rehabilitation.
The inquest was told that a shortage of appropriate neuro-rehabilitation
beds in Greater Manchester was in some cases preventing early effective
neuro-rehabilitation and increasing the risk of complications which could
lead to death.

ACTION SHOULD BE TAKEN

In my opinion action should be taken to prevent future deaths and |
believe you have the power to take such action.

YOUR RESPONSE

You are under a duty to respond to this report within 56 days of the date
of this report, namely by 25"" November 2019. |, 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

iP]

Interested Persons namely 0 behalf of the

family, who may find it useful or of interest.

| 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.

Alison Mutch OBE
HM Senior Coroner

30.09.2019

Responses

2 responses 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 Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership (PDF)
GMCA 

GREATER
MANCHESTER 
COMBINED 
AUTHORITY 

,,,,:;j

in Greater Manchester 

Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership 
4th Floor 
3 Piccadilly Place 
London Road 
Manchester M1  3BN 

T: 07825 675 823 

E: 

Your Ref:  13104/CH 

21  November2019 

Ms A Mutch OBE 
HM Senior Coroner 
Coroner's Court 
1 Mount Tabor Street 
Stockport 
SK13AG 

Dear Ms Mutch 

Re: Regulation 28 Report - Charles WILLIAMSON 

I write in response to your letter of 03 October 2019. 

Attached to this letter is a report that I hope you will agree addresses the concerns 
you outlined in respect of the above case.  Please do not hesitate to contact me if I 
can be of further help. 

Yours sincerely 

Dr Richard Preece 
Executive Lead for Quality and Medical Director 

Greater Manct]esle1  Heam1  and Social Care Partnership 1s  made up of all the NHS orgarnsat1ons and counc,ls 1n  the city region 

•·)  We're overseeing devolution and taking charge of the £6bn health and sacral care budget. 

-. , 
·-· 

  Greater Manchester Neuro-rehabilitation Services 

Prepared for a response to a Regulation 28 Report from HM Coroner, Manchester South 
October 2019 

Since  2016, Greater Manchester neuro-rehabilitation  services  have  been  considered  a  priority for 
service transformation by providers, commissioners and the Greater Manchester Health & Social Care 
Partnership. The design of the model of care for the future neuro-rehabilitation services was clinically-
led and developed in collaboration with commissioners and service users. Greater Manchester neuro-
rehabilitation  services  are  at  an  exciting  time,  as  the  transformation  of inpatient  services  has 
commenced and to date, seven out of the 12 areas of Greater Manchester have received additional 
investment into community neuro-rehabilitation services. 

Please see below for a summary of the reasons for the service changes,  the new model of care and 
the benefits that these services changes will bring. These changes will help to minimise any risks to 
patients in Greater Manchester who would benefit from Neuro-rehabilitation. 

Particularly  relevant  to  this  Coroner's  report,  the  planned  changes  will  ensure  robust  referral 
pathways between provider sites, seamless transfer, mechanisms to track patients across sites within 
a single Greater Manchester service and patients referred and admitted to the most appropriate level 
of care to meet their needs.  Improved continuity of care will be via a single GM-wide in-patient team 
and the consistent application of high quality rehabilitation care. 

Current Arrangements Regarding Neuro-Rehabilitation Services in Greater Manchester 

Neuro-rehabilitation services in Greater Manchester are commissioned by NHS  England and Clinical 
Commissioning Groups as follows: 

Service 
30  Level  1  Hyper-Acute  and  Acute  Beds  at 
Salford  Royal  Hospital serving the whole of the 
Greater Manchester conurbation 
87  Post-Acute Beds provided by three different 
providers and distributed as follows: 

-

-

-

18 beds at the Floyd  Unit serving Bury, 
Oldham and Rochdale areas 
19  beds  at  the  Devonshire  Centre 
serving Stockport, Tameside & Glossop, 
East Cheshire & North Derbyshire 
SO  beds  (40 open)  at Trafford  General 
Hospital  serving  North,  Central  and 
South  Manchester,  Trafford,  Salford, 
Bolton and Wigan 

Community Neuro-Rehabilitation Services 

Slow-Stream Neuro-Rehabilitation Beds 

Commissioner 
NHS England 

Greater  Manchester  Clinical  Commissioning 
Groups 

Greater 

Manchester 

Clinical 
Each 
Commissioning  Group  commissions  a 
local 
service  covering  their  local  area,  with  the 
exception of South Manchester 
Each 
Commissioning  Group 
stream  neuro-rehabilitation  beds 
independent sector on an ad hoc basis 

Clinical 
comm1ss1ons  slow-
the 

Manchester 

Greater 

from 

 Case for Change 

In 2017, the case for changing the neuro-rehabilitation services highlighted several reasons to change 
inpatient neuro-rehabilitation services. This included: 

• 
• 

• 

• 

• 

sub optimal patient flow into and out of neuro-rehabilitation services, 
Improvements needed in the care of patients with a tracheostomy (due to neurological deficits) 
or prolonged disorder of consciousness, 
ad hoc access to slow-stream neuro-rehabilitation, usually from independent sector providers and 
often outside of Greater Manchester, 
variation in access and service provision, including waiting times to access the services, practices 
within services, admission and discharge planning, staffing levels and outcomes, 
variation in commissioner investment and provider tariffs, with shortfall and variation in staffing 
levels, 

•  multiple commissioners of the GM services, and 
• 

increased demand. 

These  drivers  for change  informed  the  design  of the  new neuro-rehabilitation  model  of care  for 
Greater Manchester. 

New Model of Care for Greater Manchest er Neuro-Rehabilitation Services 

The new model of care design, agreed  ln 2018, describes Greater Manchester neuro-rehabilitation 
services as follows: 

• 
• 

• 

• 
• 

A single provider of the bed based (inpatient) GM Neuro-Rehabilitatlon service, 
As  now, 30 hyper-acute and  acute Neuro-Rehabllitation  beds  on the Salford  Royal  Foundation 
Trust site, 
In addition, up to 10 beds for the management of patients with tracheostomy and/or prolonged 
disorder of consciousness (as an  alternative to ad  hoc commissioned  beds in the independent 
sector), 
60 beds for post-acute Neuro-Rehabilitation (27 fewer beds than the current model), 
20 new NHS beds for patients requiring slow stream neuro-rehabilitation (as an alternative to ad 
hoc commissioned beds in the independent sector), 

•  Community neuro-rehabilitation services in every locality area providing patients with a consistent 

service offer, regardless of postcode, and 

•  Consistent  oversight,  commissioning  and  review  of all  patients  in  ad  hoc  placements  in  the 

independent sector. 

The Greater  Manchester Joint Commissioning Board agreed the business case for the new model of 
care in June 2019. The business case also included an agreement for the bed day tariff to be increased 
and standardised across the inpatient services. 

Benefits of the New Greater Manchester Neuro-Rehabilitation Services 

The anticipated benefits of the new Greater Manchester neuro-rehabilitation services are: 

• 

• 
• 

Earlier  access  to  neuro-rehabilitation, 
requirements via the single point of access, 
Improved staffing levels enabling greater intensity of rehabilitation, 
Access to services/professionals not currently accessible to all patients, 

including  consistent  assessment  of  rehabilitat ion 

 • 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

• 

Increased NHS neuro-rehabilitation beds (as an alternative to independent sector), 
Increased opportunities for rehabilitation at home/in the community, 
Increased consistency of care, 
Improved patient outcomes and experience, 
Reduced lengths of stay in hospital beds, 
Improved patient flow and  management of beds supporting patients being treated in the right 
place at the right time, and 
Improved review of patients within independent sector beds. 

Implementation of the New Greater Manchester Neuro-Rehabilitation Service 

Inpatient Neuro-rehabilitation Services: 
Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust (SRFT)  has been selected as the single provider for the inpatient 
(bed-based) part of the neuro-rehabilitation service model. 

SRFT  commenced  work in July  2019  to  plan  for the  transfer of the current  NHS  inpatient 
services into the management of Salford  Royal. Transfer of the services is expected to take 
place during January-March 2020 
20 slow-stream neuro-rehabilitation beds will be established during May-December 2020 
Estate options for the 10 post-acute tracheostomy/prolonged disorder of consciousness beds 
are currently being worked through and as such a definitive timescale for establishing these 
10 beds has not yet been agreed 

Community Neuro-rehabilitation Services: 
Each  Greater  Manchester Clinical  Commissioning  Group  has  agreed  to  commission  a  community 
neuro-rehabilitation service as  per the agreed Greater Manchester community neuro-rehabilitation 
service specification. Whilst the progress for achieving consistency of commissioning &  provision of 
community neuro-rehabilitation services varies across the region, there is a commitment by every CCG 
to have commissioned a service as per the agreed specification by April 2020. 

Ongoing work by Neuro-Rehabilitation Services 

Throughout the process of developing a case for change, a new model of care and business case for a 
new neuro-rehabilitation service, community and inpatient services have undertaken significant work 
to improve their services. For example: 

Improved  discharge  planning  practices  to  improve  patient's  experience  of the  discharge 
process, reduce length of stay and improve patient flow 
Establishment of a complex discharge service to improve patient's experience ofthe discharge 
process, reduce length of stay and improve patient flow 
Community service  in-reach  into  inpatient neuro-rehabilitation services  to support people 
being discharged into the community 
Development of community and inpatient service standards 
Peer review of inpatient services 
Development of a GM-wide training & education programme and resources 
Development of a GM neuro-rehabilitation patient & carer network to ensure patient & carer 
involvement in service improvement and development work 
Improved consistency of processes and documentation 

 .. 

Timeline of Key Decisions for Neuro-Rehabilitation Services 

December 2015: 

September 2016: 

August 2017: 

April 2018: 
October 2018: 

November 2018: 

March 2019: 

June 2019: 

July 2019: 

GM CCG  Directors of Commissioning consider the strategic outline case  for 
changing neuro-rehabilitation services and  agree  for the work to develop a 
case & model of care to proceed 
Inpatient neuro-rehabilitation services were identified as one of the priorities 
for transformation  by  the  GM  Health  &  Social  Care  Partnership  St rategic 
Board 
Improving specialist Care  Programme  (ISCP)  board and executive (set up to 
deliver the  strategy outlined  in  the  Greater Manchester  (GM)  Health  and 
Social  Care  Partnership  strategic  plan  'Taking  Charge')  agree  the case  for 
change for neuro-rehabilitation services 
The neuro-rehab model of care was agreed by the ISCP board and executive 
The GM Health & Care Joint Commissioning  Board (JCB)  approve t he model 
of care 
The GM Joint Overview and Scrutiny Committee conclude that formal public 
consultation  regarding the model  of care  was not required as  involvement 
and engagement activities had been proportionate to the number of patients 
affected by the proposed changes 
The JCB approve the single provider as t he GM Neurosciences Centre (Salford 
Royal NHS Foundation Trust) 
The JCB approve the business case for the GM neuro-rehabilitation model of 
care 
Salford Roya l NHS Foundation Trust commence implement ation planning for 
the inpatient neuro-rehabilitation service transformation
Response from The Department of Health and Social Care (PDF)
• 

Department 
of Health & 
Social Care 

Your Ref: 13104/CH 
Our Ref: PFD-1192584 

Ms Alison Mutch QBE 
HM Senior Coroner, Manchester South 
HM Coroner's Court 
1 Mount Tabor Street 
Stockport SK1  3AG 

r, . 
(~ 

l\ l ,  N\vJ-->. -
V\./ 
\ vu 

From Nadine Dorries MP 
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Patient Safety,
Suicide Prevention and Mental Health 

39 Victoria Street 
London
SW1H0EU 

020 7210 4850 

;) 5  March 2020 

Thank you for your correspondence to Matt Hancock dated 30 September 2019 about the 
death of Charles Williamson.  I am replying as Minister with responsibility for patient safety 
and I offer my apologies for the delay in responding. 

Firstly, I would like to say how sorry I was to read the circumstances of Mr Williamson's 
death.  Please offer my condolences to his wife and loved ones. 

From the information in your report, it appears that access to neuro-rehabilitation services 
was not a factor in Mr Williamson's death.  However, I agree with you that access to early 
and effective neuro-rehabilitation services is key to recovery for patients that have 
sustained a head injury. 

The provision of neuro-rehabilitation services in Greater Manchester is a matter for local 
NHS commissioners. The Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership 
(GMHSCP} was formed in 2016, bringing together local authorities, NHS commissioners, 
NHS providers and the Mayoral Combined Authority to oversee the health and social care 
devolution programme in Greater Manchester.  The GMHSCP has control of a £6 billion 
health and social care budget that is used to provide integrated care. 

I am aware that the GMHSCP has advised in  its response to your report that the NHS in 
Greater Manchester is working to implement a new model of care for neuro-rehabilitation 
services to ensure that patients are referred to the right level of care, at the right time and 
with consistent quality standards.  This followed engagement activities with patients and 
others on the new model of care. 

I am advised that the expected benefits of moving to a single service across Greater 
Manchester include improved referral pathways, better continuity of care and increased 
opportunities for rehabilitation at home and in the community. 

 In addition to changes to the configuration of neuro-rehabilitation services, the NHS in 
Greater Manchester is undertaking work to improve the quality of inpatient and community 
neuro-rehabilitation services.  This includes the development of service standards and 
improved discharge planning and processes.  I am advised that by April 2020, each clinical 
commissioning group (CCG) in Greater Manchester has committed to commission a 
neuro-rehabilitation service in line with the newly developed service specification. 

I hope this information is helpful and provides assurance about the future provision of 
neuro-rehabilitation services in Greater Manchester.  Thank you for bringing your concerns 
to my attention. 

NADINE DORRIES

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