Published: 23 February, 2012
by GEORGIA GRAHAM

A CANCER patient who was moved into a hotel room during chemo­therapy treatment instead of being given a hospital bed collapsed and died alone.

University College London Hospital rents hotel rooms for patients in the middle of treatment because it is “cheaper” than using hospital beds, a coroner’s inquest heard on Monday.

The hearing was told Ian Curtis, 39, died at Tottenham Court Road Radisson Edwardian Grafton Hotel two days after he began his second round of intensive chemotherapy.

His body was discovered by his ­visiting wife on November 2 last year. The hospital said last night (Wednesday) it was “reviewing policies and procedure” after an internal investigation.

Under the “ambulatory chemo­therapy service” at UCLH, patients have been routinely discharged to nearby hotel rooms so they can rest between doses, St Pancras Coroner’s Court was told. Mr Curtis, from Kent, was being treated for an aggressive cancer, although doctors told the inquest he had an “over 50 per cent chance” of surviving.

He was seen for the last time at UCLH on November 1 when he was assessed by nursing staff but showed no “symptoms or signs of infection”.                                                                                                                                                                                                                            
Just hours later, in his hotel room, Mr Curtis suffered diarrhoea, most likely as a result of an infection and would have suffered severe dehydration, pathologist Dr Suhail Baithun said.

Dr Kirit Ardeshna added that this would have been due to an “absolutely catastrophic infection” and he would have collapsed and died suddenly.

The “ambulatory chemotherapy” system at UCLH has been a big money-saver for the hospital.

Between 2007 and 2010 the hospital spent more than £1m on rooms at the Grafton Hotel for its chemotherapy patients.

Dr Ardeshna told the inquest: “We formed a relationship with one of the local hotels so that patients who were having relatively complex chemotherapy would have it in the outpatient facility. If all was well they would be allowed to stay in the hotel.

“It is certainly cheaper in terms of bed costs because we are paying the costs of a hotel room rather than a functioning bed that would have been five times more expensive.”

He added that “patients prefer it on the whole” in hotels because family and friends could be around them and “they get a breakfast”.

Initially, patients who were on this scheme – based on a widespread practice in US hospitals – were given panic alarms to alert the hospital if anything went wrong.

Alarms were also fitted in hotel rooms next to beds, but both these precautions were removed because patients did not use them, the inquest heard.

The scheme has been widened in recent years to allow patients to stay in the hotel rooms alone without a carer by their side so that more people could qualify for the scheme.

Coroner Selina Lynch said Mr Curtis’s symptoms had not been ignored by the hospital but he had been “extremely unlucky” to become “acutely unwell” when he was on his own, his condition deteriorating with “not even enough time for him to call for help”.

She recorded a verdict of accidental death.

A spokeswoman for UCLH expressed sympathy with the family and friends of Mr Curtis, and added: “The coroner was not critical of the care provided by UCLH. Unfortunately, there was a rapid deterioration of Mr Curtis’s condition outside of hospital which could not have been predicted.”

She said: “UCLH was the pioneer of ambulatory care in the NHS, allowing patients to stay overnight or for a number of days in a nearby ‘home from home’ instead of having days of drug treatment in hospital.

“Patients regularly praise the service and describe it as empowering not only for themselves but also for their companions.

"Patients eligible for ambulatory care can still choose to stay in hospital.

If they opt for ambulatory care, they are given clear instructions when to contact the hospital as well as a contact telephone number and a bleep number which are carried by a senior nurse 24 hours a day.”

The statement added: “UCLH stopped installing panic alarms [in the rooms of unaccompanied patients] in July 2011 after a review found they had not been activated in two years and that patients preferred to make a phone call. Following the death of Mr Curtis, UCLH conducted an internal investigation and is reviewing policies and procedures in relation to patients staying in hotels post-treatment.”