Lessons that must be learnt

Lesley Morrill was promised lessons would be learnt from the care of her mother, who died 20 hours after she arrived at casualty.

But last night she said patient care seemed to have got worse rather than better and patients were paying for it.

Rose Wintle, 72, was kept waiting for hours before being seen in a "filthy dirty" cubicle, left on a trolley in a corridor and ignored by staff who were "not interested in their elderly patients", Mrs Morrill complained.

The chief executive of Brighton Health Care NHS Trust, Stuart Welling, admitted problems at the time, including long delays for patients waiting to be seen, how uncomfortable and distressing it was for patients to be nursed on a trolley and the national shortage of trained nursing staff.

He said: "I deeply regret that you feel her care was so unsatisfactory and, whilst I cannot turn back the clock, I can assure you that lessons for the future will be learnt from what you have told us."

But, more than two years later, the trust has been given a zero rating by the Government and Mr Welling has until the end of the year to turn round its fortunes.

If he does not, new managers will be brought in and he will be out of a job.

Mrs Morrill said: "I wasn't particularly happy with the response from the trust at the time but I felt that if procedures were being changed then some good may have come out of my mother's death.

"Unfortunately, two years later I am still reading about problems and the care of patients at the hospital and it seems to have got worse instead of better."

Mrs Morrill said she was horrified to hear about former Hove mayor Ian Moy-Loader, who died at Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton last month after being found lying on a bloodstained mattress on the floor of a ward by his daughter, Geraldine Des Moulins.

She said: "I find it amazing that in this century and in this country we are seeing cases like this."

Mrs Morrill wrote to Mr Welling in July 1999 to complain about the lack of care her mother received when admitted to the hospital with severe leg pains.

She waited for three hours to see a doctor who diagnosed cellulitis and possible thrombosis and a blood sample was taken.

A second doctor saw her an hour later and again diagnosed possible thrombosis before drugs were administered by the sister three hours after that.

Half an hour later she was transferred to the corridor and stayed there for 50 minutes before being taken to the X-ray department. She arrived back at A&E, was eventually moved on to a ward almost 12 hours after being admitted.

Mrs Morrill, of Rosebery Avenue, Brighton, said she believed there was little that could have been done to save her mother but was furious at the care she received while in casualty.

Mrs Morrill wrote: "If I had not been there to nurse my mother, giving her sips of water and trying to help her move her position she would have been even more distressed."

In his response to Mrs Morrill's letter, Mr Welling said the trust was actively exploring how it could reduce the length of time patients had to wait before being admitted to a ward.

On the day of Mrs Wintle's admission, the department was extremely busy and this was compounded by staff shortages.

Mr Welling said staff did care for their patients but, because of the overwhelming pressure of work, nurses were only able to provide immediate life-saving support.

He acknowledged none of his explanations diminished the "serious shortcomings" of Mrs Wintle's treatment and said lessons needed to be learnt.

He said the trust planned to incorporate the information provided into a formal learning/teaching aid within the department.

Last night, a trust spokesman said it was continuing to work on improving conditions for patients.

He said it was working with social services to try to ease the bed-blocking crisis. It also had an active ongoing recruitment campaign. He added the trust needed support from local authorities and health organisations to do it.