A CORONER has demanded answers after a patient with known allergies and hypersensitivity to medications was given an iron infusion and then left by nurses.

Christopher Byron went into cardiac arrest after being given the treatment at the Royal Oldham Hospital in January 2017 and later died, an inquest earlier this year heard.

Joanne Kearsley, senior coroner for Manchester North, has now written to the Northern Care Alliance (NCA), which oversees the hospital, and other health bodies in the wake of Mr Byron's death.

An inquest had been told that Mr Byron had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1996 and had been managing his condition successfully until he became less mobile at the start of 2016.

He became bedridden and, though under the care of district nurses, he developed pressure sores which became infected, eventually resulting in a Royal Oldham hospital admission on November 29 that year, a coroner's court was told.

One discharge and readmission later, he was prescribed and given an iron infusion on , to combat a suspected deficiency, though nothing was recorded anywhere on his medical records, other than on an admin form.

Another iron infusion was administered on January 9, though no clinical reasoning was given, with the coroner noting it would not have been given if the doctor had been aware of the first dosage, the inquest heard.

Mr Byron, the court was told, should have been observed for 30 minutes but this did not happen and he went into cardiac arrest and was found unresponsive later.

Coroner Mrs Kearsley said: "On both occasions when iron was authorised there was a lack of adequate consideration and assessment of the risks and benefits for Mr Byron. who had a number of allergies and hypersensitivity to various medications, was receiving antibiotics for chronic infections and was prescribed Rampiril."

The coroner has issued a prevention of death report and questioned the Northern Care Alliance on its policies surrounding staff shortages within district nurses, anaemia management and nursing observations.

Patients were also given buzzers, to alert nurses, when given iron infusions, but the coroner questioned what use these would be for patients suffering cardiac arrests.

Oldham Clinical Commissioning Group has also been asked why district nurses only carried limited stocks of dressing for patients, as Mr Byron often had to wait for fresh ones, given the severity of his condition.

An NCA spokesman said: "We are dedicated to ensuring patient safety is maintained throughout all of our services and we will be working with the coroner to implement the recommendations.

"The organisation would like to apologise and offer our sincere condolences to the family of Mr Byron.

"We are in the process of conducting a thorough review and we will provide a written response to each concern and share this with the family.

"The NCA is committed to being open and honest and if the family would like to discuss any of the concerns in advance of this date, we would ask them to contact us directly."

And a spokesman for Oldham CCG added: "We are aware of this case, and we would like to express our sympathy to Mr Byron's family.

"We are supporting the work of the coroner’s review, and as the safety and quality of services is paramount to us, we will work with our commissioned community and hospital services and providers to ensure that any learnings that come from the review are put into action."