Recurring concern

Failure to prioritise clinical care over administrative work

Pin Get email alerts Request correction

First reported 24 Nov 2016•Latest report 2 May 2025

Definition

What this concern includes

Includes failures in care or practice processes where clinical care needs are misclassified, deprioritised or delayed in favour of administrative tasks, including inadequate staff preparation to prioritise care and failure to distinguish requests requiring clinical assessment from true administrative work.

Not included

  • Excludes generic workload, staffing or administrative-capacity concerns where clinical care is not wrongly deprioritised or misclassified.
  • Excludes ordinary administrative delays that do not cause or threaten delayed clinical assessment or care.
  • Excludes failures in communication, supervision or documentation where prioritisation of clinical care over administrative work is not the shared unsafe condition.
  • Excludes condition-specific clinical pathways and named referral or triage systems when they provide a more specific supported boundary.
Reports
2

Distinct published reports

Individual concerns
2

A report can raise multiple concerns

Date range
2016–2025

First to latest report issue date

Stated actions
3

Described in published responses

Reports over time

Reports over time

Reports about this concern issued each year.

* 2026 is projected from reports observed to 7 Sep 2026.

Most frequent recipients

Most frequent recipients

Reports about this concern sent to each recipient.

NHS Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care Board1
Richmond Medical Centre (Solihull)1
The Children's Trust1

Concerns and responses across reports

Only concerns grouped under this recurring concern are included. Select any concern, action or position to view the source wording.

  1. Inner West London

    AI-generated summary

    Raihana Oluwamidalo Awolaja · Prevention of Future Deaths report

    This summary was generated using AI from the published report. Please read the original report for the complete account.

    Report summary

    Raihana Oluwamidalo Awolaja, who was tracheostomy-dependent and required one-to-one nursing care, was left unsupervised at her residential care home for approximately fifteen minutes. Secretions blocked her tracheostomy, causing respiratory compromise and cardiac arrest; she was later resuscitated but died of hypoxic ischaemic brain injury. The principal concerns included inadequate supervision and staffing, possible shortcomings in training and communication, and concerns about the care provider’s investigation and handling of concerns raised by next of kin.

    Read the report on judiciary.uk

    Source evidence

    How this individual concern was interpreted

    PFD Monitor created a concise, searchable interpretation from the report wording shown below.

    PFD Monitor interpretation

    Insufficient staff training on prioritising care over administrative tasks

    Wider context from the report

    “5. That there may be training issues in relation to the prioritisation of administrative tasks above care. ”

    Source location

    Raihana Oluwamidalo Awolaja · Prevention of Future Deaths report
    Page 4 · concerns

    Open source report

    Source evidence

    How this respondent action was interpreted

    PFD Monitor created a concise, searchable interpretation from the published response wording shown below.

    PFD Monitor interpretation

    Allocate a dedicated administrator to each house so care staff can focus on caregiving.

    Verbatim wording from the response

    “• Dedicated Administrative Support: Each house has been allocated a dedicated administrator, allowing care staff to focus on their primary caregiving responsibilities without being unduly distracted by administrative tasks.”

    Source location

    Response from The Children’s Trust
    Page 1 · response
    Published 19 May 2025

    Open published response

    Source evidence

    How this respondent action was interpreted

    PFD Monitor created a concise, searchable interpretation from the published response wording shown below.

    PFD Monitor interpretation

    Clarify staff roles and formally prioritise direct care over administrative duties.

    Verbatim wording from the response

    “• Role Clarity: We have clarified staff roles to ensure that direct care is prioritised over administrative duties. Staff have been formally instructed on this expectation.”

    Source location

    Response from The Children’s Trust
    Page 1 · response
    Published 19 May 2025

    Open published response
  2. Birmingham and Solihull

    AI-generated summary

    Timothy Simon Jones · Prevention of Future Deaths report

    This summary was generated using AI from the published report. Please read the original report for the complete account.

    Report summary

    Timothy Simon Jones, who had Down syndrome, epilepsy and dementia and required PEG feeding, was admitted to hospital with breathing difficulties and aspiration pneumonia, was discharged and readmitted the same day, and died on 17 July 2016. Concerns included incomplete GP record keeping, unclear communication and documentation of requests for home visits, lack of GP clinical assessment despite deteriorating health and complex needs, a home-visit policy that did not address residents with complex chronic conditions, and antibiotic prescribing for aspiration pneumonia.

    Read the report on judiciary.uk

    Source evidence

    How this individual concern was interpreted

    PFD Monitor created a concise, searchable interpretation from the report wording shown below.

    PFD Monitor interpretation

    Failure to distinguish clinical assessment tasks from true administration tasks

    Wider context from the report

    “2. I heard evidence at the inquest that the residential home had requested several home visits from the GP, on 5 July 2016, 12 July 2016 and 13 July 2016, but the GP disputed this. The mechanism of communication within the GP practice caused concern in that several aspects of care were classified as “admin tasks” when they required further clinical assessment. The process of requesting and documenting requests for home visits needs to be clearer. The role of “admin tasks” needs to be clarified so that these are only used for true administration tasks. ”

    Source location

    Timothy Simon Jones · Prevention of Future Deaths report
    Page 1 · concerns

    Open source report

    Source evidence

    How this respondent action was interpreted

    PFD Monitor created a concise, searchable interpretation from the published response wording shown below.

    PFD Monitor interpretation

    Issue a learning alert to all Solihull member practices covering home-visit requests, policies, care-home requests and administrative-task classifications.

    Verbatim wording from the response

    “• In addition a ‘learning alert’ will be issued to all Solihull member practices to highlight concerns and learning in relation to: ○ Recording of requests for home visits ○ GP home visit policies ○ Nursing/residential home requests for GP home visits ○ Classifications of administrative tasks”

    Source location

    2016-0421-Response-by-Solihull-Clinical-Commissioning-Group
    Page 1 · response
    Published 19 February 2017

    Open published response
Back to top

Data last updated 7 September 2026