Coroner to probe claims that Lambourn man’s rural address contributed to care issues

A GRIEVING son told an inquest that medical services failed his father, partly because he lived in a rural area.

The coroner heard the 88-year-old was treated at both Swindon’s Great Western Hospital and the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading – and that respective staff did not always communicate adequately.

The inquest was being held at Reading Town Hall on Wednesday, August 27, into the death of Colin Underhill-Smith, who lived at Mill Lane in Lambourn.

Mr Underhill-Smith died in the arms of his son, Clive, on May 4 last year – at home, as he had wished.

He had been ill with gastrointestinal issues for some time and had a feeding tube fitted, but generally remained in good spirits despite his suffering, the inquest heard.

But his son told the coroner that, instead of sending qualified staff to manage the feeding tube, whenever there were issues his father would be taken to one hospital or the other and kept in for a week – unnecessarily, the family believed.

He said: “There was no co-ordination between [the two] hospitals.”

Clive Underhill-Smith added that, because Lambourn was near both West Berkshire and Wiltshire, hospital treatment was inconsistent and added: “Then they’d send him home with no proper care.

“I sometimes had to change the pipe myself; there was no proper food for it at home – they’d give us tinned food or dried pasta.

“It seemed they didn’t know what they were doing.

“The tube valve kept breaking and every time it happened they’d take him into hospital and keep him there for a week.

“No one seemed to know what was going on – it was a complete disaster.

“We were told carers would give medication but they were saying they weren’t allowed to and we got caught up in all this.”

Mr Underhill-Smith told the coroner that he, his brother Gary and mother Gerry would have appreciated more information from hospital staff.

Assistant Berkshire coroner Katy Thorne KC told him: “I want to make sure you feel there has been enough of an investigation and I feel currently you don’t.”

She said that, under the circumstances she was adjourning the inquest, which will be resumed and concluded at a later date.

This was in order that more information could be gleaned from nursing staff and medical consultants involved in the patient’s care and to explore some of the issues that had been raised by the family.

Mr Underhill-Smith told the Newbury Weekly News he felt that his father’s care had been haphazardly assigned to one hospital, then the other because of the area in which he lived, meaning the family had to deal with two NHS trusts which, he felt, had not adequately communicated with each other.

Ms Thorne said she hoped to be able to conclude the inquests within a few months.