8 hours Ago
Sue Darnell, the NHS 111 health advisor that spoke with the mother off Cyrus Perry on June 7, 2023, provided evidence at the inquest into his death at the hearing on on March 10. Cyrus, 17, passed away after it took eight hours for an NHS 111 clinician to call back. Cyrus' mother, Mrs Perry called the 111 service at around 10.
28pm on June 7, 2023, and the court heard she did not receive a call back until after 6am the following morning on June, 8. Christopher Bowden, the quality and governance lead for the integrated urgent care services within Dorset Healthcare, also provided evidence to Dorset Coroner's Court. In his evidence, Mr Bowden explained the workings of the NHS Pathways system, which is what 111 health advisors use to process calls and direct callers.
He said after asking a series of questions and recording responses, advisors are directed to specific pathways to take. With the call on June 7, Ms Darnell heard what symptoms were being described and chose a 'dizziness' pathway, as she stated it was a 'thorough' pathway relating to Cyrus' symptoms. The first disposition was for Mrs Perry to get Cyrus urgent care within the hour, in this case meaning going to A&E.
However, Mrs Perry said due to her son being extremely unwell and it being too difficult to get him to A&E, this would not be possible. The second disposition was for a clinician with medical experience to call Mrs Perry after she had been placed on a clinician call back queue , which had a 20 minute priority. Ms Darnell started as a health advisor in 2017 and has worked continuously in a part time role since.
Ms Darnell said as a health advisor, their goal is to get the 'safest and quickest care for the patient that we can', stating that this is what she believed would happen when placing the information in the clinician call back queue. She said: "I was under the impression that it was an urgent call back. "I was confident in the outcome.
" She told the jurors that health advisors aren't medically qualified, but they do have to undergo training, have call supervision and various audits. The inquest will hear evidence from multiple advisors within Dorset Healthcare and other authorities before the conclusion on Thursday, March 13..
