{"id":52642,"date":"2017-12-08T06:13:16","date_gmt":"2017-12-08T06:13:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thefastfashion.com\/?p=52642"},"modified":"2017-12-08T06:13:16","modified_gmt":"2017-12-08T06:13:16","slug":"girl-died-anorexia-aged-19-let-every-single-nhs-organisation-involved-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thefastfashion.com\/?p=52642","title":{"rendered":"Girl who died from anorexia aged 19 ‘let down by every single NHS organisation involved in her care’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Averil Hart’s death was an “avoidable tragedy”, a damning report has found<\/span><\/p>\n

A teenager who died following a harrowing battle with anorexia was let down by every single NHS organisation involved in her care, a damning report has found.<\/p>\n

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The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) has warned that the death of Averil Hart aged 19 illustrates “widespread problems with adult eating disorders services in the NHS”.<\/p>\n

An investigation found inadequate coordination and planning of the teenager’s care during a particularly vulnerable time in her life, as she was leaving home to go to university.<\/p>\n

There were also failures in her care and treatment in two acute trusts after she became seriously ill.<\/p>\n

Ms Hart, from Sudbury in Suffolk, was voluntarily admitted to the Eating Disorders Unit in Cambridge aged 18 in September 2011.<\/p>\n

She had a three-year history of anorexia nervosa and was severely underweight with a significant risk to her physical health.<\/p>\n

Over the following 11 months as an inpatient she slowly gained weight and doctors decided she could be discharged in August 2012 as she was very keen to take up a place at the University of East Anglia.<\/p>\n

Still underweight, she was referred to outpatient eating disorder services in Norfolk for ongoing treatment.<\/p>\n

But she was found unconscious on the floor of her student flat by a cleaner just four months later and transferred to Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, where her blood sugar was not properly monitored.<\/p>\n

She died on December 15 2012.<\/p>\n

The PHSO report said all the NHS organisations involved in the teenager’s care and treatment between her discharge from hospital on August 2 2012 and her death failed her in some way and her “deterioration and death were avoidable”.<\/p>\n

Referring to complaints by her father, Nic Hart, the report went on: “We found that most of the NHS organisations which dealt with Mr Hart’s complaint failed to respond to his concerns in a sensitive, transparent and helpful way.”<\/p>\n

Their investigations were not sufficiently thorough or joined-up, it said. They did not provide Mr Hart with the answers he sought about Averil’s care and treatment.<\/p>\n

The report continued: “These failings led Mr Hart to feel profound frustration with the NHS organisations and exacerbated his and his family’s deep distress resulting from Averil’s avoidable death.”<\/p>\n

It said the local investigation into Ms Hart’s death was “wholly inadequate with the organisations involved being defensive and protective of themselves, rather than taking responsibility”.<\/p>\n

While Ms Hart began her university course in September 2012, she was not allocated a care coordinator until October.<\/p>\n

Although she was meant to have weekly appointments with a doctor, she saw a GP on three occasions between October 12 and November 8 and at the last appointment a locum GP told her she did not need to come back for a month.<\/p>\n

Mr Hart visited his daughter at university on November 28 and was shocked by how much weight she appeared to have lost and made an emergency call to the Eating Disorders Unit in Cambridge.<\/p>\n

Adv<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n