Woman died after hospital blunder

A grandmother from Gillingham died after she was wrongly sent home from a Kent hospital, a report has said.

It follows a Healthcare commission inquiry which found a junior doctor at Medway Maritime Hospital discharged Valerie Frost, 66, inappropriately.

NHS trust chief Andrew Horne said: "Had not the patient been discharged, there may have been a different outcome. That of course we will never know."

Frank Frost, Valerie's husband, said the mistake should not have happened.

He said: "It will never be resolved for me. Mistakes were made and they shouldn't have been."

He said his wife was admitted to the hospital last June with a suspected urinary infection, and was sent home after a five-day stay still feeling unwell, only to die a week later.

And he said the Healthcare Commission found Mrs Frost's chances of survival would have been "greatly increased" if she had not been sent home.

The Healthcare Commission told BBC Radio Kent that it did not release individual reports and declined to be interviewed.

Councillor Rehman Chishti, who represents Gillingham and Rainham, said it showed there had been a "lack of procedure".

He said: "That would mean that other people in Medway have suffered the same, actually. And I would ask people to come forward."

But Medway NHS Foundation Trust said such incidents were rare at the 650-bed hospital, which sees a million people each year.

The trust is now set to review procedures, and the doctor involved will be apologising in person.

Chief executive Mr Horne added: "This is a tragic case and one which the trust accepts it has a lot of lessons to learn."

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