Queen Elizabeth Hospital worker died with Covid, inquest hears

A healthcare assistant who died with Covid refused to stay home rather than go to work as she did not want to let her colleagues down, an inquest heard.

Chrissie Emerson, 64, who worked at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King's Lynn, Norfolk, died on 19 April 2020.

She had a number of health conditions and was taking immunosuppressants, but was not deemed "clinically extremely vulnerable", the inquest heard.

The hospital said it made "every available effort" to protect staff.

Jacqueline Lake, senior coroner for Norfolk, concluded Mrs Emerson died of viral pneumonia caused by Covid-19, also described as natural causes.

Mrs Emerson's family questioned why she was not made to stay home due to her health conditions, which included inflammatory arthritis.

The hospital said because she was classed as "higher risk", and not "clinically extremely vulnerable", she could not be forced to stay away.

At the time, she was working in a non-Covid area of the outpatients department.

The inquest heard Mrs Emerson had a "strong work ethic" and had told her GP she did not want to let her colleagues down.

Norwich Coroner's Court heard Mrs Emerson went home sick on 7 April due to worsening symptoms of cellulitis in her leg.

Her daughter Joanne Lowe said: "If my mother had got that swab test on the seventh, there would have been a window where something could have been done."

Debra Longmuir, deputy general manager for medicine at the hospital, said she had twice asked Mrs Emerson whether she wanted to stay at home rather than work, but she refused the offer.

She was also "adamant" she did not want to move from outpatients to a different department "like surgery", the inquest heard.

"I didn't have ability to be able to force her to stay at home," Ms Longmuir said.

The inquest heard the hospital implemented mitigation measures and would ensure Mrs Emerson did not meet and greet patients before it was known if they had Covid or not,

Sheena Johnson-Banks, Freedom of Information and legal services officer for the hospital, said "We believe we made every available effort to protect our employees.

"There was no way of knowing whether she caught Covid in hospital."

The coroner said she could not be certain where Mrs Emerson contracted Covid, because community transmission of the virus was high at the time.

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