An 85-year-old woman with a fractured pelvis died after she had to wait seven hours for an ambulance home, an inquest heard.

Rose Hillman, who was registered blind, had been admitted to the Royal Sussex County Hospital, Brighton. But doctors decided to send her back to the Heath Hill Lodge nursing home in Brighton and called an ambulance at 6.50pm the same day.

An ambulance did not arrive to collect the frail pensioner, a retired cinema cashier, until 1.30am the next day. Despite being given morphine to stop the pain of the fracture, Mrs Hillman died at 2.15pm on November 21 of heart failure.

Brighton and Hove Coroner Veronica Hamilton-Deeley called for changes in hospital practices following the death. She recorded a verdict of accidental death but said: "I hope after hearing about this delay, recommendations and guidelines can be made to make life easier for people waiting for transfer."

She said that a suggested transfer time should be included in the Patient's Charter. PC Peter Hutin raised concerns when he visited the nursing home the day Mrs Hillman died.

He told the Brighton inquest: "I was astonished that a previously active and healthy woman was admitted with a broken pelvis and released 24 hours later. It was an awful piece of timing to release her at 2.50 on a freezing night."

Mrs Hillman's son Derek, a taxi driver, was told his mother would be kept in hospital for a few days for physiotherapy but later learned she had been sent home. He was shocked to be told by the home that she had died.

Pathologist Nigel Kirkham said the stress of falling, being taken to hospital and then sent home in the early hours would have contributed to Mrs Hillman's death.

He said: "It was a very long day. None of us are at our best at 3am. If she had got back to the home earlier in the evening it would have been better."

John Ryan, of the hospital accident and emergency department, said Mrs Hillman was placed on a transfer ward at 5.30pm, where she waited for seven hours. He said: "No one likes going home at 3am but we wanted to get her home at the earliest possible opportunity."

Jo Garcier, manager of ambulance control in Sussex, said the usual quota of 12 ambulances had been reduced to eight that night and there were several emergencies. An internal inquiry into the delay had begun, he said.

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