Coroner's concerns over A&E

A coroner has expressed his concerns about staffing levels and the way patients are admitted to a Staffordshire A&E following the death of a 71-year-old woman.

The comments follow complaints at an inquest from the daughters of a pensioner admitted several times to hospital after falls in 2006 and 2007 about her care.

South Staffordshire Coroner Andrew Haigh recorded a verdict of accidental death on June Whittingham, of Ivetsey Road, Wheaton Aston.

The inquest at Cannock heard that the pensioner was last admitted to Staffordshire General Hospital in Stafford on July 4 after a fall. She then went into a care home but she died on August 25.

Her daughters told the coroner of their anger at their mother's care in Stafford and outlined times when they found her and other patients covered in their own excrement. Donna Harris, landlady of the Hartley Arms in Wheaton Aston, said: "I asked how long it would take to get someone to clean my mother up and they said an hour because they were so short-staffed."

They also raised concerns that following a fall in June 2007 there was a delay in Mrs Whittingham being admitted to the hospital

Physician Dr Anthony Oke said that staffing was under constant review and patients like Mrs Whittingham needed constant care. He said the delay in admission would not have made a difference.

The coroner, on Tuesday, said he would be writing to the hospital about the admission procedure and staffing levels.