Cancer patient died alone after hospital sent him to hotel - Telegraph.co.uk

His body was discovered by his visiting wife on November 2 last year.

The hospital said it was now "looking to see if lessons could be learned" from the incident.

Under the "ambulatory chemotherapy service" at UCLH, patients have been routinely discharged to nearby hotel rooms so they can rest between doses, St Pancras Coroner's Court was told.

Mr Curtis, from Kent, was being treated for an aggressive cancer, although doctors told the inquest he had more than 50 per cent chance of surviving.

He was seen for the last time at UCLH on November 1 when he was assessed by nursing staff but showed no "symptoms or signs of infection".

Hours later, in his hotel room, Mr Curtis suffered diarrhoea, most likely as a result of an infection and would have suffered severe dehydration, pathologist Dr Suhail Baithun said.

Dr Kirit Ardeshna added that this would have been due to an "absolutely catastrophic infection" and he would have collapsed and died suddenly.

Between 2007 and 2010 the hospital spent more than £1 million on rooms at the Grafton Hotel for its chemotherapy patients.

Dr Ardeshna told the inquest: "We formed a relationship with one of the local hotels so that patients who were having relatively complex chemotherapy would have it in the outpatient facility. If all was well they would be allowed to stay in the hotel.

"It is certainly cheaper in terms of bed costs because we are paying the costs of a hotel room rather than a functioning bed that would have been five times more expensive."

He added that "patients prefer it on the whole" in hotels because family and friends could be around them and "they get a breakfast".

The scheme has been widened in recent years to allow patients to stay in the hotel rooms alone without a carer by their side so that more people could qualify for the scheme.

Coroner Selina Lynch said Mr Curtis's symptoms had not been ignored by the hospital but he had been "extremely unlucky" to become "acutely unwell" when he was on his own, his condition deteriorating with "not even enough time for him to call for help". She recorded a verdict of accidental death.

A spokeswoman for UCLH said: "The patient was given the option to stay in the hotel which is a quieter and more relaxing environment.

"This service is known as ambulatory care because it allows patients, where there is no need fro them to be in hospital, to get treatment as day cases by choosing to sleep in a hotel nearby or go home if they live close enough to the hospital.

"Patients regularly praise the service and describe it as empowering not only for themselves but also for their companions.

"Ambulatory care was part of Mr Curtis's treatment plan, which included being monitored on a daily basis within the hospital by his nursing and medical team. He fulfilled the strict criteria required for patients to be eligible to stay in the hospital.

"We do not put seriously ill patients in hotel rooms. The policy of allowing eligible patients to stay in a hotel room whilst receiving their care in hospital will continue.

"As with any inquest, we are looking to see if we can learn anything from the case."