POLICE launched an inquiry into the death of a Hampshire pensioner after her family claimed she had received sub-standard care, an inquest heard.

Hilda Andrews had been transferred from Southampton General Hospital to Romsey Hospital as part of her rehabilitation after breaking a bone in a fall.

But within a month she had died.

Southampton Coroner’s Court heard that her son Michael Curtis had raised issues including the loss of some of her medical notes and what he saw as a cover up of a significant number of mistakes in his mother’s treatment.

But the inquest was told that the police inquiry had found no evidence of wrongdoing by hospital staff.

Mrs Andrews, 88, of The Harrage, Romsey, died of purulent peritonitis as a result of perforated gastric ulcers.

She had been moved to Romsey Hospital for rehabilitation and physiotherapy at the beginning of March last year following a fall in which she had fractured her pubic bone.

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Subsequent X-rays showed the injury was more serious than first thought, the inquest heard.

At 6am on March 28, Mrs Andrews was found semiconscious and taken by ambulance back to Southampton General Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 1.15pm on March 28.

Detective Sergeant Russell Hodges, who led the police investigation, said that two nurses and a care worker were on duty the night before Mrs Andrews’ death.

He said that disciplinary proceedings had been taken against two of the staff, but that this was in relation to the care of patients other than Mrs Andrews.

The care worker, referred to by the initials MB, said in her statement that Mrs Andrews had been asking for the commode in the early hours of the morning and was not feeling well, but had been examined by a nurse who found nothing out of the ordinary.

Mr Curtis, speaking on behalf of the family, said his mother had been suffering with severe diarrhoea for two weeks before her fall.

He said his mother’s problems with gastric ulcers went back to the 1950s and was believed to be due to her work during the Second World War.

Dr Ian Keith, who was Mrs Andrews’ GP and was also one of two doctors treating her at Romsey Hospital, said he was aware of this medical history, but had found no evidence of a serious new problem.

Pathologist Dr Sanjay Jogai said he had found two ulcers in the stomach that had perforated causing fluid to go through the abdominal cavity, which was the cause of death.

He said that the initial formation of the ulcers could have happened over several months.

Proceeding