Lincolnshire: Hospital staff left elderly woman in stranger’s bed | UK News

An elderly woman who was discharged from hospital on morphine was taken back to the wrong patient’s home and mistakenly left in their bed.

Joyce Wright, 83, was incorrectly discharged from Pilgrim Hospital in Boston after a hip operation and taken to a house 40 miles away from where she lives in Sleaford, Lincolnshire.

Hospital workers opened a key safe intended for another patient’s discharge, then left her in their bed in Skegness on Tuesday.

Her son Andy, 55, did not know she had been sent home and only found out when the relatives of the other patient found her in the next morning.

Andy told the BBC: ‘It was dark and my mum was on pain relief, on morphine, so obviously things were a bit confusing for her.

‘She didn’t quite realise [where she was] at that particular time and obviously she was quite drowsy.’

He said it was ‘absolutely shocking’ and feared something worse could have happened.

He told The Sun: ‘It is unbelievable. What if they gave my mum the wrong medication? I thought patients wear wristbands so this can’t happen.’ 

Andy said he was ‘very, very angry’ when he found out about the ‘epic error’ and believed what happened was ‘a result of the pressures that everybody is under’.

Ambulance staff rushed to collect her from the home and took her back to hospital, and she is now well and in ‘good spirits’.

‘She said the bed was comfy as well,’ he added.

She was thought to have been mistaken for another female patient in the room next door who was ready to go home.

A spokesperson from United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust and East Midlands Ambulance Service said: ‘We have spoken with both patients and their families to offer our heartfelt and sincere apologies.

‘This clearly falls below the standard of care we want to deliver. A review is underway to ensure it does not happen again.’ 

The trust has since launched an investigation into what happened. 

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