A jury at the Nottinghamshire Coroner’s court found that there had been a “continuous failure to provide adequate healthcare”, to a 25 year old man who died of pneumonia at HMP Nottingham in March 2020.
The inquest process also led to the disclosure that a prison officer had told lies and a nurse involved in the treatment of Alex Braund had amended crucuial documents. She has lost her job and has been reported to the Nursing and Midwifery Council as a direct result of the case.
Mr Braund was being held on remand when he died, one of 27 people to have died at the prison within the last 5 years. He was fit and well upon arrival at the prison. Mr Braund’s family have described their loss as being ‘utterly incalculable, compounded by a deep sense of unfairness in such a young life being needlessly lost.’
The inquest uncovered lies from a prison officer, Officer Binns, who is now facing disciplinary action as a result of falsely claiming that he had been conducting hourly checks upon Mr Braund, a claim which was disproven by CCTV evidence, which he attempted to discredit before finally accepting his lies to the inquest.
Cynthia Bailey, the nurse who along with a senior healthcare assistant was responsible for the care of the entire prison of over 800 prisoners, was found to have provided inadequate care of Mr Braund, including failing to read Alex’s medical notes, take a full set of observations or ask any probing questions. She was also found to have amended her records in relation to Mr Braund including adding readings which were said to have been in the normal range the night before he died and to have altered his treatment plan.
Assistant Coroner Laurinda Bower has said that she intends to refer the case to the police in relation to possible offences of perjury and falsifying medical records
She indicated that she will also be making a prevention of future deaths report in the case because she is ‘tired of doing inquests involving the same organisations and the same issues coming up time and time again’.
Lucy McKay, spokesperson for the charity INQUEST, who have been supporting the family of Mr Braund said ‘Alex was neglected by a prison which has a long record of failing to protect the health and wellbeing of those who are owed a duty of care. He was also failed in death by staff who lied about their actions, and investigators who failed to address this.’.