A widow says she is struggling to move on after the death of her husband due to a “lack of action” by a hospital trust found to have wrongfully discharged him.

Rosalind Tucker, from Ovingdean, said she is appalled by Eastbourne District General Hospital bosses who have not addressed the failings that led to the death of her husband Barry.

Brighton and Hove senior coroner Veronica Hamilton-Deeley slammed the hospital, describing it as “rudderless ship” at Mr Tucker’s inquest in January.

She found the 71-year-old retired property lettings manager would not have died had he been given expert consultant care and not wrongly discharged by the hospital, after going in for a surgery to remove bladder cancer.

Speaking to The Argus yesterday Mrs Tucker said: “I feel we have had a very painful time with his last 24 hrs in the world and three-day inquest covering every single matter.

“You would have thought they would have geared themselves into action and said right we are doing this and that to address the problems at the hospital, but it doesn’t seem to be the case.”

Following the inquest the coroner ordered the hospital trust to respond to her report to prevent future deaths with ways they would improve the hospital, but the trust had not responded properly by the allotted time in March.

The coroner has now given the hospital an extension to respond.

Mr Tucker had been unwell and vomiting days after a complex surgery to remove bladder cancer, before he was discharged from the urology ward and died from complications two days later on September 17 2017.

Miss Hamilton-Deeley identified many failings in the hospital’s care in her verdict at the end of a two day inquest:

  • “Rudderless” hospital wards had no senior consultants in charge
  • “Sub-standard” and “disgraceful” notes taken by doctors
  • Focus was on discharge “as soon as possible” and doctor took promotional picture with patient 

Giving a narrative verdict Ms Hamilton-Deeley at the inquest she ruled: “Mr Tucker died from multiple organ failure and septic shock following a combination of factors arising post surgery.

“The circumstances were that Mr Tucker should not have been discharged on September 15. 

“He should have been given expert consultant and nursing care at the urology unit. He should have received a patient information leaflet after cystectomy. On the balance of probabilities had he received these he would not have died when he did."

Mrs Tucker added: “I feel their administration is pretty incompetent to be honest, if they cant manage to right the reply in the correct format.”

She also said she was disappointed with the “attitude and arrogance” in the way they responded to her complaints, and she is still receive an apology.

She is still waiting for the results of an internal hospital investigation.

A spokesman for East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust said: “We can confirm the trust responded to the Coroner’s Prevent Future Death report on March 14 within the required deadline of March 15.

“We shared a comprehensive investigation report with the coroner which addressed the concerns from the inquest. However, the coroner requested a different format that more specifically responds to each matter raised and as a result kindly granted the trust an extension until March 29 to provide this revised response. This we will do will do before the new deadline.

“We would again offer our condolences to the family and friends of Barry Tucker. We work hard to make sure that every patient receives the highest quality care, and we recognise that some aspects of Mr Tucker’s discharge from hospital and our record keeping fell short of this standard. We would again like to offer our sincere apologies to Mr Tucker’s family and friends.

“Apologies and condolences have been offered to Mrs Tucker previously in our correspondence with her as part of her ongoing complaint along with an offer of a meeting with senior clinicians involved in her late husband’s care which she declined.”