Investigation and inquest
The death of Paul Hardy was subject to an Inquest from 3-12 November 2014
Circumstances of the death
Paul Hardy was a serving prisoner at HMP Lowdham Grange, operated by Serco, when he was confirmed by his local hospital as suffering from urological cancer. Whilst this was not, in the end, the immediate cause of his death, there were delays and errors in process whilst he was under the care of Lowdham Grange which caused unnecessary suffering and distress.
Coroner’s concerns
1. That there was a clear failure by Healthcare Staff to act upon instruction given by a visiting Advanced Nurse Practitioner to obtain and process blood and urine samples for the investigation of possible urological cancer.
2. There was a failure to act upon a clear recommendation made by the Prison and Probation Ombudsman's Clinical Reviewer for facilitating the effective obtaining of blood samples for INR monitoring.
3. There was a failure to act upon a clear recommendation made by the Clinical Reviewer that there should be a Significant Event Analysis of the events surrounding the death of Paul Hardy.