A Bootle man died after suffering a head injury during a fall in Aintree A&E while nurses' backs were turned.
Patrick Maloney, 64, was taken to Aintree A&E by his sister on April 18 after suffering a seizure. He died ten days later of a brain haemorrhage, caused by an accidental fall on April 19.
At his inquest yesterday, Jonathan Smith, the divisional director of nursing at Aintree University Hospital, said: "There were missed opportunities to do everything that we could to reduce the risk (of a fall). We can't always safeguard everybody all of the time, but our expectation is that we try to."
READ MORE: Ex boxer who fractured pub landlord's skull has sentence doubled
The day after being admitted to A&E, Mr Maloney - who suffered from epilepsy - was seen trying to get out of bed in order to use the toilet. He was confused and disorientated, and had to be helped into a chair by two nurses.
The nurse then turned her back on him while she looked for a bed pan. During this time, the former merchant navy steward, who lived in Bootle, suffered a fall.
Coroner André Rebello said: "She turned around and found Patrick was on the floor with a head injury. It was unclear whether he had slipped or fallen from the chair. He was assessed by a doctor who found an injury to the right of the forehead; this was dressed appropriately.
"The following day his level of consciousness began to deteriorate and a CT scan was arranged, and this showed a large haemorrhage."
However, hospital surgeons decided he was not fit for surgical intervention at that time.
On April 21, Mr Maloney suffered another seizure and a further head scan showed his haemorrhage had grown. Another scan on April 23 showed his condition had not changed.
When he was taken off sedation on April 25 he failed to wake up, and a decision was made to commence palliative care. He died at 6.30am on April 28 of an intracranial haemorrhage (brain bleed) and epilepsy.
The court heard that, prior to Mr Maloney's tragic accident on April 19, a full fall risk assessment had not been carried out by A&E staff.
Mr Smith said: "Simply this wasn't completed. With that said, a number of measures were taken to safeguard this gentleman.
"When I took this post, I was concerned about the number of falls in A&E and we needed to do some work. Trust policy at the time said that fall risk assessments need to take place in A&E, but at the moment (patients) are there for significant periods, sometimes exceeding 24 hours, so I was mindful that we needed to bring this risk assessment forward, so that's what has been put into place... for all patients in the major part of the department."
But he added that these assessments were still not always being carried out "due to the pressures in A&E at the minute".
He said that the morning Mr Maloney's inquest took place, October 18, the hospital's A&E department had 150 people waiting for treatment, with 40 of these being kept in corridors spilling out of the waiting room.
Mr Rebello said that Mr Maloney's situation was "a fall waiting to happen". He handed down a conclusion of accidental death.
David Melia, chief nurse at Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: “I want to offer my sincere condolences to Mr Maloney’s family and we acknowledge that there were missed opportunities to prevent his fall and we apologise for this.
“Following our own internal incident review we have made changes to the processes and training in our A&E departments so that patients who are at heightened risk of falling are cared for appropriately and we are continuing to make significant investment in the recruitment of additional staff to help alleviate the pressure in our busy A&E departments.
“We are also working closely with our partners across the region to improve the flow of patients in to and out of our hospitals, which will again help alleviate the pressure in A&E departments.”
READ NEXT
First picture of gun found stashed in Nike bag next to gravestones
DWP to pay five cost of living payments before Christmas
Thug threatened to 'burn girlfriend's face with a barbeque' on camping trip
Urgent warning over gang targeting elderly shoppers at Aldi and Lidl
Man offered a place to stay was sexually assaulted as he slept
