A WOMAN says she is “utterly disgusted” with the Alexandra Hospital after staff discharged her elderly mother, who has dementia, without notifying her family.


Elsie Hewitt, aged 89, has Parkinson’s Disease, arthritis, vascular dementia and macular degeneration, and went into hospital following a minor fall, and to be treated for an infection.

She was admitted on August 16 and her daughter, Rosamund Crawford, who moved several years ago to look after her mum full time, visited with her husband every day.


On August 24, Mr and Mrs Crawford were just preparing to leave home, on Old Birmingham Road in Bromsgrove, to visit her mum, when there was a knock at the door, and they found ambulance staff had brought Mrs Hewitt home, despite her family having no knowlege that this was going to happen.

Mrs Crawford said: “Mum is in a worse state now than when she went in. As she has dementia, the journey home in the ambulance was terrifying for her. My husband and I wanted to pick her up in a car she recognised, then I could have chatted to her about familiar things, and held her hand, on the way back.

“She was discharged wearing a hospital gown as I had not been given the chance to bring her in clothes to wear home.

“Had the ambulance been one minute later we would have already left and they would have been bringing a very frail and vulnerable elderly woman back to an empty house, which would have been even more terrifying for her. I am utterly disgusted that they would treat my mum in this way.”


Jane Smith, head of nursing and quality, said “We are really sorry that this patient’s discharge was not planned with the full involvement of the family. We have spoken with the family and offered our sincere apologies.

“The trust has strict policies in place for discharges and vulnerable patients, and on this occasion these were not put into action. A breakdown in communication led to our patient being discharged home in an ambulance.

“This is an unacceptable error that we have taken very seriously. We have taken action to ensure that this does not happen to other families in the future.”