Patient sent home from Royal Shrewsbury Hospital with needle in leg

Margaret Guest, from Whitchurch, spent six days in the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital being treated for a water infection, but 24 hours after she was discharged a home carer discovered the intravenous needle in her leg. She has now been readmitted to hospital with an infection in her leg.

Mrs Guest was readmitted with a skin infection three days after the needle was found on November 20. She remains in hospital today.

Mrs Guest lives with her daughter Margaret and son-in-law Rob Hewson, who is the deputy mayor of Whitchurch.

Mr Hewson also raised concerns about the time it took for his mother-in-law to get treatment, more than three hours after the family alerted doctors.

He said he did not call 999 because he would have felt 'so guilty' if a child had been taken ill at the same time and he had called for an ambulance to be stationed at Whitchurch Community Hospital.

Mrs Guest suffered a stroke in 1998 and has had a number of health problems.

She was originally admitted to hospital on November 13 and discharged on November 19.

But the day after she was allowed to leave the hospital a carer discovered the needle in her leg.

Mr Hewson said: "She'd been admitted to the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital but back at home a carer on a home visit discovered an IV line hanging out of her leg so we called the district nurse.

"On Friday she was rushed back in because she had an infection in her leg.

"This is an 89 year old lady, she's not supposed to come out like that.

"I've nursed her here with my wife, but when she goes to hospital her care gets worse.

"The district nurse said it should never ever happen, for somebody to come out of hospital with one of those attached."

A spokesman for Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust he could not comment on this specific case and asked anyone with concerns about care to contact the Patient Advice and Liaison Service.