AN inmate at Winchester Prison died “suddenly and unexpectedly”, a few hours after testing positive for Covid-19, an inquest heard.

John Reid, who described himself as “fit and healthy”, died just two weeks after being admitted to Winchester Prison on remand, aged 58, on August 11, 2022.

An inquest at Winchester Coroner's Court on Monday, March 11, led by senior coroner Chris Wilkinson, determined his cause of death as Covid-19. Mr Reid deteriorated and showed septic-like symptoms in a matter of hours of testing positive. He had no other health issues other than an underlying coronary artery atheroma which was detected in a post mortem.

While the coroner believes health care and ambulance response time was up to standard, he criticised the lack of record keeping at the prison, with no documentation of what happened between 10am when he tested positive and midday when Mr Reid presented as being more unwell, nor was the reason why he was tested in the first place.

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Mr Reid died at 2.07pm shortly after being taken to the Royal Hampshire County Hospital in an ambulance. He showed no signs of illness or symptoms until the day he died.

His daughters Jade Smith and Eloise Macklin both attended the inquest.

The siblings said the news of their father’s death “trickled” down to them two days later. However, it wasn’t until weeks on that they were informed of other details, including that he was on remand at Winchester Prison.

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Jade, the eldest daughter, questioned whether more baseline tests could have been conducted when her dad was first tested for Covid.

Jade’s statement, read out by the coroner, described her father as an outdoorsy and “funny” man who spent much of his life working as a decorator with his brother.

The statement read: “We’re finding it difficult with his very sudden passing.”

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Concluding the inquest, Mr Wilkinson said: “He had no known existing illnesses, none that caused him significant problems. On admission, there was nothing out of the ordinary that would have clinical teams on notice.

“We can’t determine exactly whether he was already infected. Given that he tested positive at 10am I’m of the view that more could have been done to escalate that positive test to the clinical teams for assessment. What I’m not entirely clear about is whether he was monitored at all or whether it was self-recorded. He presented more unwell at midday and at that point the nurses and clinical team did arrive. His condition deteriorated very quickly.

“Reactions to Covid 19 have been so varied and even now we don’t fully understand why people have reacted the way they have. John reacted very badly and quickly and there is no other clinical evidence of contributory factors. It was a positive Covid-19 infection and underlying atheroma.

“Record keeping needs to improve and I understand that matters are being taken, otherwise I don’t see that the emergency response would have contributed to his survival.

“I hope that matters in relation to clinical record keeping will be taken on board and continue to be addressed.”

The prison's clinical team is run by Practice Plus. Representative Susan Cha explained that record-keeping has been improved with nurses taking notes contemporaneously or as soon as possible after an ongoing incident.