Two patients die after falling from windows at Scots hospital as health board fined £220k
A Scots health board has been fined £220,000 over the deaths of two vulnerable patients who died after falling from hospital windows.A 55-year-old man passed away while being cared for on the neurosurgery ward at the Western General Hospital, Edinburgh, in October 2017.
He had suffered a head injury after a failed attempt to take his own life.The patient had undergone surgery which could cause “confusion, delirium and anxiety” when he plunged 11 metres from the second floor window.In January 2023, a 79-year-old man was being cared for in the hospital’s Medical Assessment Unit after suffering hallucinations, confusion, distress and showing signs of delirium.After multiple attempts to abscond from the facility, he left the ward and was found five hours later in the canteen preparation room, allegedly having fallen from a first floor window. Join the Daily Record's WhatsApp community here and get the latest news sent straight to your messages. The man did not regain consciousness before he died 16 days later on February 8.
Medical staff had considered moving the man to a secure ward before his death, but due to the coronavirus pandemic, movement between wards was strictly controlled and he wasn’t transferred.
Lothian Health board has now pleaded guilty to breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act at Edinburgh Sheriff Court.They were fined £45,000 for the death of the 55-year-old due to the window in his room not being restricted to the required 100mm opening gap.
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