A teacher who died of malaria might have lived if two hospitals had not simply followed 'the usual channels', a coroner said yesterday.
Coroner John Saunders ruled Simon Davies died of natural causes at Princess Margaret Hospital on February 16.
But he noted: 'It is not open to the Coroner's Court to add to the verdict the expression 'aggravated through lack of care', no matter how obvious that circumstance may be.' Davies, a 34-year-old Briton, was admitted to Queen Elizabeth Hospital on February 13 with suspected malaria and transferred to Princess Margaret Hospital's infectious diseases unit the next morning.
But Queen Elizabeth Hospital was unable to process his blood test quickly and then failed to pass on the results to Princess Margaret Hospital.
As a result, Davies' treatment was delayed for 'at last 36 hours after he was first seen by doctors at Queen Elizabeth Hospital', Mr Saunders said.
'Had the blood test results been telephoned through [from one hospital to the other] . . . the outcome may well have been different,' he said.
The coroner dismissed explanations by Queen Elizabeth Hospital doctors that the blood tests and transfer of information had been handled through usual channels as 'simply unacceptable' and 'unrealistic'.