An 81-year-old woman was sent home from hospital with no medication, advice or aftercare following surgery to remove a cancerous tumour, say her distraught relatives.
Bradford Teaching Hospitals Trust has now launched an investigation into the treatment of Miranda Butterworth, who was left to nurse a leg wound at home.
Bradford South MP Gerry Sutcliffe has also taken up the case of Mrs Butterworth, of Buttershaw.
Her family said that she had worked for more than 40 years as a home care assistant, but now that she was disabled with arthritis and suffered from cancer, the system had let her down.
Mrs Butterworth's daughter, Linda Rowntree, said that the way her mother had been treated was disgraceful.
Mrs Rowntree said: "My mother is in her 80s and worked hard all her life. She has had a serious operation to remove the tumour in her leg and has been left with a gaping hole in her leg.
"When she left hospital she was given no medication and she is in a lot of pain.
"She can hardly walk but she has not been given a wheelchair.
"My mother can't spend the rest of her life lying in bed in pain. I have tried everything but I am at my wits' end."
The family said that after Mrs Butterworth's operation on May 11 she had almost a week's recuperation in Bradford Royal Infirmary before she was discharged on May 17.
They said she was told to make her own way home, not provided with a wheelchair even though she could not walk, and provided with no medication other than advice to take paracetamol.
After it became apparent that Mrs Butterworth was in severe pain the day after she was discharged, they tried to get a visit from their GP.
Mrs Rowntree said: "We arranged a home visit because my mum was in pain but the doctor's car apparently broke down and she never arrived."
She said that her mother should have been assessed before she left hospital and arrangements made for social services to become involved.
Mrs Rowntree said: "On the day before she was discharged she was supposed to have a visit from a physiotherapist who would say whether she was okay to leave.
"The next day the doctor came round and discharged her but there had been no physio visit. We were told it wasn't really necessary."
Following a meeting with Bradford Teaching Hospitals Trust on Friday, held after the family contacted the T&A, Mrs Rowntree said arrangements had now been made to have a district nurse help the family with their mother's care.
She said the hospital had apologised for what had happened but said neither the Trust nor Bradford Council had been able to offer help with her request for wheelchair adaptation to the house and a stair-lift. The family has bought their own wheelchair at a cost of almost £300.
Mrs Rowntree said: "They said it should have been assessed before she left hospital, but now it is out of their hands.
"Even if they had pointed us in the right direction that would have given us a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel. But they gave us no direction of where to go next. I feel really frustrated."
Mrs Rowntree said she was not aware that the meeting had marked the start of an investigation by the Trust.
But a spokesman for the Trust said: "The daughter was pleased that the Trust is investigating further. We will write to the daughter and offer to meet her to discuss the outcome of what we find out.
"At the meeting we discussed the patient's care at home, of which she was advised that she is under the care of her GP. The district nurse is seeing her at home and will refer her if she feels any further care is needed at home. It is not going to be a permanent injury and the patient's mobility will improve."
The spokesman said that home care came under the remit of Bradford social services.
Trust chief executive Miles Scott said: "Having looked at this case I'm not sure there is a case to answer. It is a complicated system with people responsible for different things. The onus is on everyone to communicate and work in a team. We do not tell social services every time anyone leaves hospital.
"We have a dedicated team of discharge nurses which has links with social services, cases are identified and where identified referrals will be made."
MP Mr Sutcliffe said: "I will be contacting the family and taking up the matter on their behalf. Clearly it is not acceptable for anyone to be treated in this way. I will be finding out why and how this happened. It is certainly not good enough."
A Bradford Council spokesman said: "We have not had any contact with this lady but we would be happy to meet with her and discuss her needs and how we can help.
"No request was made for support from social services after discharge from the hospital in this case.
"Ward staff assess and identify if social services' support is required for the patient and will then make a referral but in this case no need was identified."
e-mail: paddy.mcguffin@bradford.newsquest.co.uk
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