David Greenfield
27 Nov 2014 · Coroner Andrew Tweddle · County Durham & Darlington
The coroner's concerns
1. lack of experience with drug and alcohol patients
“Not everyone involved in his care was experienced in dealing with patients who had both drug and alcohol problems and the risks of respiratory depression in patients such as the deceased were not fully appreciated”
2. no drug screening for alcohol detox patients
“Evidence was given if a patient enters The Priory with a view to a drug treatment issue then that patient would be screened for drugs. If a patient is admitted to The Priory for an alcohol detoxification programme then there is no screening for drugs”
3. inadequate risk appreciation for methadone patients
“A re-training programme had been introduced by The Priory following this death but it would seem that there remains a lack of a detailed appreciation of the risks involved of | death of patients in receipt of methadone and of patients with the particular characteristics of the deceased”
Responses
2014-0518-Response-by-Priory-Group.pdf ↗· The Priory Group
Stated action · end of February 2014
“We are in agreement with you that we should routinely use urine drug screens across all of our detoxification services as part of the assessment process and where necessary on an on-going basis thereafter. Since the inquest we have reviewed this practice and learnt that a number of hospitals are routinely undertaking urine drug screens on those patients who are admitted for alcohol detoxification. Our intention is to ensure that our hospitals all have access to urine drug screening kits and that”