NURSING home workers have given differing accounts of the evening a cup of tea may have been spilled on a patient.

Retired nurse Margaret Young was at the Beechcroft Manor Nursing Home, in Gosport, when she developed a “gangrenous” sore days after claiming tea had been spilled on her, an inquest heard.

The 73-year-old was taken to hospital but died of sepsis three days later, on June 20 last year.

But while one worker on tea duty told of finding a red mark on Mrs Young and her bed wet on the evening of the alleged incident, another did not remember anything unusual.

The inquest heard staff noticed a red mark the next day and Mrs Young told them a man had spilled tea on her, which led to a retrospective accident report and a series of GP visits.

The Portsmouth inquest heard that tea was made downstairs then served floor by floor, finishing on Mrs Young’s floor.

On the day of the alleged incident, June 12, agency worker Bestman Owhondah told how he had been serving tea on night shift with nurse Marie Ebsworth.

He said Ms Ebsworth gave him tea to take through to Mrs Young, but did not know how hot it was. He said he put it in the middle of the table, at Mrs Young’s request, then carried on. Returning an hour later to prepare residents for bed, he said he saw a hand-sized red mark on Mrs Young’s abdomen and the drink was gone.

Mr Owhondah, who did not work at the home following this incident, looked to see what caused it, thinking it might be a tea spillage, and found the bedding was wet, but did not notice what colour it was, he said. He added that Mrs Young did not say anything about what happened and Ms Ebsworth told him it was nothing.

Lincoln Brooks, representing the nursing home, said the pathologist had said it was not likely that this mark was a significant scald.

He said that Mr Owhondah had got confused and defensive about the mark and his statement was “needlessly complicated and needlessly incorrect”, to which he said: “No I didn’t.”

Nurse and support assistant Marie Ebsworth told the inquest the bed had not been wet and when Mrs Young was changed that evening and the next morning she had noticed no red mark. Asked whether she was covering up for Mr Owhondah, Ms Ebsworth said: “I wouldn’t cover up for anybody.”

Nurse in charge that night, Usha George, said she had not been aware of anything unusual.

Inspecting Mrs Young’s red mark later she could not see blisters associated with a scald.

Mrs Young was in the final stages of life and was admitted to the home, in Beechcroft Road, in June 2011 after a fall.