Woman dies in hospital storeroom

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A Londonderry hospital has apologised to the family of a terminally ill woman who died over Christmas in a treatment room which was also used as a store.

Altnagelvin hospital said it was not the first time a dying patient was put into "a far from ideal environment".

The hospital said it tries to ensure such patients have privacy, but all the single rooms were occupied at the time.

The room in question is also used to store medical supplies and staff need regular access to it.

The hospital said: "We try to ensure that terminally ill patients and their families have privacy in a single room.

We had no option, in order to give some privacy to the family, than to move her to the treatment room Hospital statement

"Unfortunately, all the single rooms on the ward were occupied by other terminally ill patients or by patients who needed to be in isolation.

"We therefore had no option, in order to give some privacy to the family, than to move her to the treatment room."

Offering condolences to the woman's family, the hospital added: "We are also deeply sorry that the family experienced her death in what we fully acknowledge was a far from ideal environment."

Altnagelvin said the woman was being cared for in Ward 3 which is extremely busy, and there had been other occasions when the treatment room had to be used for terminally ill patients.

Dignity

The hospital said it was "regrettable" that the woman's husband felt that "staff coming in and out of the room were insensitive to the fact that his wife was dying".

"We will investigate that further and try to ensure that it doesn't happen again," it said.

"We would advise that, as part of the redevelopment of the hospital, there will be a significant increase in the number of single rooms available, which will allow dying patients to be cared for with the privacy and dignity that we want to provide and that they, and their families, deserve."