Michelle Lyons & David Spereall
BBC News, Yorkshire
Family handout
Chloe Ellis died last September three days after being discharged from A&E
A grieving mother has called for changes to NHS procedures after important medical information about her daughter was not passed between departments.
Chloe Ellis, 29, died on 3 September 2024, three days after she was discharged from hospital with a viral infection.
Ms Ellis had been advised to go to A&E by the NHS’ 111 service – which had assessed she may have had a blood clot on her lungs – but this information was not visible to the medics who saw her in person, an inquest in June found.
Her mother Jean Walker said she wanted improved communication within the NHS. The Department of Health and Social Care said it was digitising healthcare to put patient information “all in one place”.
Ms Ellis, a “nature lover” who worked for the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, was taken to Leeds General Infirmary after she collapsed at home and died later the same day following several cardiac arrests.
She had attended Dewsbury and District Hospital’s A&E department the previous weekend with breathing difficulties, but neither she nor the hospital was informed 111’s online assessment had diagnosed a suspected pulmonary embolism on her lungs.
Family handout
Ms Ellis was described by her family as a “nature lover” who worked for the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust
Instead she was sent home with instructions to drink lots of fluids in the mistaken belief she was suffering from a minor respiratory infection.
At the inquest into her death, assistant coroner Oliver Longstaff said it was possible for the outcome of 111 assessments to be made accessible to emergency departments, but that this hadn’t been commissioned in West Yorkshire.
Ms Walker, from Bradford, said her daughter’s death had had a “devastating” impact on her family and called for all emergency departments to have access to such records.
“It didn’t need to happen,” she said.
“All we can do to honour Chloe and make sure it wasn’t in vain, is change the system and get the attention of government.”
Michelle Lyons/BBC
Jean Walker hopes the government will look at making national improvements to the system
Ms Walker said the issue was something that could potentially affect NHS patients all over the country, given current regional differences in practice.
The West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) previously said it was reviewing the points made by the coroner as a result of the case and would “establish what changes are required in order to prevent similar losses in future”.
Ms Walker added: “You’re relying on someone asking you the same questions again and coming to the same conclusion, which they didn’t for Chloe.
“For Chloe, for us and for any other mums out there we need to try to get it changed – and I don’t see why it wouldn’t be.”
A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said: “Our deepest sympathies are with Ms Ellis’ family and friends in this tragic case.
“As part of our 10-year health plan we are shifting healthcare from analogue to digital and introducing a new single patient record so health and care professionals will have all of the information they need about a patient in one place.”
Dr Mark Freeman, deputy chief medical officer at the Mid Yorkshire Teaching NHS Trust, which runs Dewsbury and District Hospital, said: “We send our sincere condolences to Chloe’s family and friends and continue to work alongside West Yorkshire ICB as it reviews the issues raised by the coroner.”