Big Fine Over Sheffield Insulin Death
9 July 2015, 16:39 | Updated: 30 March 2016, 13:50
Two firms have been fined a total of more than half a million pounds after the death of a diabetic hospital patient from Barnsley.
Two firms have been fined a total of more than half a million pounds after the death of a diabetic hospital patient from Barnsley.
Neil Judge suffered multi-organ failure after being injected with insulin syringes containing no insulin at the Northern General Hospital, in Sheffield.
An investigation found Mr Judge, 58, had been treated with a batch of intravenous insulin syringes that actually contained no insulin at all, just saline.
A judge at Sheffield Crown Court heard how the faulty syringes were supplied to Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust by Fresenius Kabi Ltd as a licensed wholesaler for Calea UK Ltd, which manufactured the product.
The agency said Fresenius Kabi, of Eastgate Way, Manor Park, Runcorn, was fined a total of £500,000 and ordered to pay a further £5,900 in costs after pleading guilty to breaching the Medicines Act 1968.
Calea UK, of the same address, was fined £50,000 with £5,900 costs after also pleading guilty to similar breaches.
Last year, Sheffield coroner Chris Dorries ruled that the diabetic ketoacidosis arising out of the manufacturing error was a "major contributory factor'' in Mr Judge's death.
