‘Failures’ finding over death of fall victim

Marjorie Tortice died last May aged 84 after being treated at Dewsbury and District Hospital following a fall in which she sustained a fracture.

Assistant deputy coroner Dr Dominic Bell, sitting in Bradford, said she had received appropriate surgical management of her injuries.

But, in a narrative verdict, he said there were “significant failures in documentation and communication between the medical, pharmacy and nursing teams”.

He said these failings led to a lack of appropriate treatment which may have prevented her from dying when she did.

After the inquest, Professor Tim Hendra, medical director at The Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “On behalf of the Trust, I would like to extend our sincere sympathies to Mrs Tortice’s family.

“We recognise that some aspects of care fell below the expected standard and I would like to apologise for this.

“We carried out a full and thorough investigation to understand and learn from what happened and have now implemented improvements in our care pathways. We would welcome the opportunity to meet with Mrs Tortice’s family if they would like to discuss this.”