A retired headteacher who died after being hospitalised did not have access to “critical medication” while fighting an illness, a court has heard.
Ian Bland, 57, died on April 23 last year after spending more than a week at a King's Lynn hospital without medicine to treat an infection.
An inquest into his death has revealed how Mr Bland did not have access to drugs needed to treat toxoplasmosis – an infection caused by a parasite – during an eight-day stay at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.
A review conducted into the care of Mr Bland, who was diagnosed with HIV in 2004, also identified a lack of understanding at the hospital of how to treat patients with an acute illness and a history of the disease.
Norfolk Coroner's Court heard that Mr Bland, who lived in Wisbech, was admitted to the hospital on April 8 when his landlord called an ambulance after he lost feeling in the right side of his body and could not communicate.
He was initially taken to the stroke ward and a CT scan linked his condition to an infection.
An MRI scan on April 12 confirmed he had toxoplasmosis but the drugs needed to treat the illness were not available at the hospital.
He was subsequently transferred to the infectious diseases unit at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge where his “breathing deteriorated” on the evening before his death.
He died at the hospital during the early hours of April 23.
His medical cause of death was established as aspiration pneumonia caused by cerebral toxoplasmosis, due to human immunodeficiency and virus infection.
Concluding his inquest, assistant coroner Christopher Leach said: “Ian should have had access to that critical medication at the hospital.
"I am satisfied that the cause of Ian's death was natural ... following an infection in his lungs.
“An MRI showed that he was suffering from an infection caused by a parasite. There was a delay in the administration of the medication due to the unavailability at the pharmacy.
“Mr Bland had not been compliant with his HIV medication. Mr Bland was transferred to Addenbrooke’s Hospital where he acquired aspiration pneumonia, deteriorated and died on April 23, 2025.”
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