Safety recommendation
It is recommended that the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, together with the Royal College of Radiologists, develops, deploys and evaluates a national evidence-based process to detect and manage patients with acute aortic dissection presenting to emergency departments. The process should form part of a wider strategy for managing non-cardiac chest pain in the emergency department.
Response:
Both the Royal College of Emergency Medicine and the Royal College of Radiologists extend our sympathies to Richard’s family.
We thank them for allowing our medical specialties to learn from Richard’s death. We’re committed to developing and promoting clear guidance for diagnosing and managing patients where acute aortic dissection may be a possibility, but not recognised as such within the emergency department.
We are developing an evidence-based process for national roll-out, and the colleges have created a working group to carry out HSIB recommendations. The working group is expecting to publish its guidance in 2021.
Evidence-based protocols will provide a framework for consistency. However, Richard’s experience can only be truly avoided by ensuring that all emergency departments can access radiologists to support accurate and timely diagnosis.
This, together with the right consultant capacity within emergency departments to help the multi-disciplinary team quickly recognise signs of acute aortic dissection, will enable swift, life-saving action to be taken.
Response received on 7 October 2020.