Prevention of Future Deaths reports · 2024

Harry Dunn

Regulation 28 report to prevent future deaths, reference 2024-0413, written 4 Jul 2024. A coroner writes one of these when an inquest reveals a risk that could cause further deaths unless something changes.

Date of report4 Jul 2024
Reference2024-0413
DeceasedHarry Dunn
CoronerAnne Pember
Coroner areaNorthamptonshire
CategoryRoad (Highways Safety) related deaths · Hospital Death (Clinical Procedures and medical management) related deaths
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

NOTE: This form is to be used after an inquest.

REGULATION 28 REPORT TO PREVENT DEATHS
THIS REPORT IS BEING SENT TO:
Secretary of State for Health and Social Care

The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency

1 | CORONER

Tam Anne Pember, HM Senior Coroner for Northamptonshire

2 | CORONER’S LEGAL POWERS

I 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 04 September 2019 I commenced an investigation into the death of Harry Peter DUNN
aged 19. The investigation concluded at the end of the inquest on 13 June 2024. The
conclusion of the inquest was:

Road Traffic Collision

4 | CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE DEATH

The circumstances of the death are as follows: -

On_27 August 2019 at about 2030 hours there was a head on collision between a car driven
an employee of the US Government who had not !ong been in the UK
and whose husband worked out of the nearby RAF Croughton, and a motorcycle ridden by Mr
Harry Dunn. The cause of the collision was that on exiting RAF Croughton

inadvertently moved onto the incorrect side of the B4301 rural road and travelled about 350
meters on the wrong side of the road prior to the head on collision with Mr Dunn, who was on
the correct side of the road travelling out of the village of Croughton.

Mr Dunn suffered catastrophic injuries including fractures to all four limbs, some of which
were open in nature and a fracture to his pelvis with the concomitant severe internal blood
loss commonly associated with such serious injuries.

He was attended to by an advanced medical team including a Consultant Anaesthetist and
Critical Care paramedics and then conveyed to hospital where he died shortly after arrival.

5 | CORONER'S CONCERNS

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

The MATTERS OF CONCERN are as follows:
(brief summary of matters of concern)

Regulation 28 — After Inquest
Document Template Updated 30/07/2021

(1) As a result of the collision Mr Dunn landed in a prone position (on his front). In order
for him to be treated by the pre hospital team he had to be moved out of this position
to give ready access to his injuries. This necessitated the administration of analgesia.
However, due to his positioning and the location of his injuries in conjunction with the
extent of blood loss intravenous analgesics could not be administered.

(2) Due to the experience level and qualifications of the pre hospital team in attendance,
which included a Consultant Anaesthetist, an alternative form of analgesia, namely
nasal morphine could be administered.

(3) However, evidence was heard at the inquest that had the first attending team been a
paramedic team they could not have administered this potentially lifesaving
treatment as analgesia’s which can be delivered either nasally or buccally (via the
cheek) are not presently available to paramedics despite being available to UK
military personnel and mountain rescue teams.

(4) Iam concerned that the unavailability of such analgesics to paramedics to assist
them to deliver potentially life saving pre hospital treatments or to enable a faster
extraction of a patient where time is of the essence for medical treatment reflects a
risk of deaths into the future.

ACTION SHOULD BE TAKEN

In my opinion action should be taken to prevent future deaths and I believe you (and/or your
organisation) 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 August 29, 2024. 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

I have sent a copy of my report to the Family of the Deceased and to the Chief Coroner. I
have also sent a copy of this report to West Northamptonshire Council, Northamptonshire
Police, to the Chief Executive of East Midlands Ambulance Service and the solicitors on behalf

a

Iam also under a duty to send a copy of your response to the Chief Coroner and all
interested persons who in my opinion should receive it.

I may also send a copy of your response to any person who I believe may find it useful or of
interest.

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.

Dated: 4" July 2024

Mrs Anne Pember A.W. Poubal

His Majesty’s Senior Coroner for the County of Northamptonshire

Regulation 28 — After Inquest
Document Template Updated 30/07/2021

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 Dhsc (PDF)
a

Ct
De partment Minister of State for Health
of Health & 39 Victor Street
Social Care SW1H OEU

Our ref: as

Anne Pember

His Majesty's Senior Coroner
The Guildhall St Giles' Square
Northampton

NN1 1DE

Northamptonshire

224 August 2024
Dear Ms Pember,

Thank you for your two reports of 4 July regarding the death of Harry Peter Dunn. | am
replying as Minister with responsibility for urgent and emergency care.

Firstly, | would like to offer my sincere condolences to Mr Dunn’s family and loved ones. It
is vital that where Regulation 28 reports raise matters of concern, these are looked at
carefully so that NHS care can be improved. | am grateful for you bringing these matters to
my attention.

Your reports raise concerns with East Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust’s (EMAS)
response times, and paramedic access to analgesics.

In preparing this response, Departmental officials have made enquiries with NHS England
(NHSE) and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). |
understand MHRA will write to you separately regarding the report for which they are a direct
recipient.

In relation to ambulance service performance, the Government accepts that response times
have been below the high standards that patients should expect in recent years. The NHS
has been broken and it will take time to fix. However, we are determined to do so and have
committed to returning urgent and emergency care waiting times to the safe operational
waiting time standards set out in the NHS constitution. For Category 2 incidents, this would
mean an average response time of 18 minutes compared with current NHS performance
(July 2024) of 33 minutes 25 seconds.

As a first step, the Health Secretary has ordered a full and independent investigation into
NHS performance to provide a frank assessment of the issues and challenges it faces.
The investigation’s findings will feed into the Government's work on a 10-year plan to
radically reform the NHS and build a health service that is fit for the future.

In the shorter-term, a range of action is being taken by the NHS this year to improve
performance including maintaining the increase in ambulance capacity (hours on the road)
delivered in 2023/24, where NHSE reported a circa 6% increase year-on-year for
December 2023. There is a focus on reducing ambulance handover delays to support
patient flow and on increasing direct referrals into community services to reduce
conveyance rates to acute hospitals.

NHSE has advised my officials that the regional team for the Midlands will continue to
have regular review meetings with EMAS including on the support needed to improve
response times performance and the quality of care for patients. It is recognised that
operational productivity has fallen since the pandemic, and while there was improvement
during 2023/24, further improvement is required. The NHS’s operational target for 2024-25
is for Category 2 response times to improve to an average of 30 minutes across the year.

Regarding your concerns on paramedic access to nasal analgesics, as of 31 December
2023, paramedic independent prescribers who are registered with the Health and Care
Professions Council can prescribe and administer the following five controlled drugs:
e Morphine sulphate by oral administration or by injection
Diazepam by oral administration or by injection
Midazolam by oromucosal administration or by injection
Lorazepam by injection
Codeine phosphate by oral administration

Paramedics without an independent prescribing qualification can also administer a range
of medicines on their own initiative via exemptions under the Human Medicines
Regulations 2012.

Please be assured that we will take account of your concerns when agreeing the next
steps in our joint work programme with NHSE regarding expanding supply, administration
and prescribing of medicines responsibilities for regulated healthcare professionals.

Thank you once again for bringing these concerns to my attention.

* _ po

Related reports

Other reports by Anne Pember

See all →

More reports categorised “Road (Highways Safety) related deaths”

See all →

Track Road (Highways Safety) related deaths

See every Prevention of Future Deaths report matching Road (Highways Safety) related deaths, and how often a new one appears.

What would an alert for this have sent me? Search the full text

Free to try — the preview shows the real matches and how many arrived in the last 12 months. Your first email alert is free.

These reports are published by the Chief Coroner's office at judiciary.uk and are © Crown copyright. The text here is reproduced from the published PDF so it can be searched. If something on this page is wrong, or you are a person named in it and want it reviewed, email drcjar@gmail.com and we will act promptly.