Fury as hospital staff take discharged 83-year-old patient on morphine to the WRONG house, let themselves in from a key safe and put her to bed – where the homeowner’s shocked relatives found her the next morning

An elderly woman was discharged from hospital on morphine, taken to the wrong house and mistakenly put to bed there by ambulance staff in Skegness.

Joyce Wright, 83, was wrongly allowed to leave Pilgrim Hospital in Boston and dropped at a house owned by another patient 40 miles from her home in Sleaford, Lincolnshire, on Tuesday.

Staff used a key safe at the house to enter, before taking Mrs Wright up to the bedroom. The homeowner, another patient, was supposed to have been discharged. 

Her son Andy, 55, said he was not informed his mother had been sent home, and instead learned of the mistake when the other patient’s shocked relatives found Mrs Wright in bed the next day.

Ambulance staff then went to the house on Wednesday morning where they found Mrs Wright still in the bedroom, and took her back to hospital.

Mr Wright said he was ‘very, very angry’ when he found out about the ‘epic error’ and believed the incident was ‘a result of the pressures that everybody is under’. 

Andy, pictured with his mother, said he feared the ‘epic error’ could have been much more serious

Speaking to the BBC, Andy said the mistake was ‘absolutely shocking’.

‘It was dark and my mum was on pain relief, on morphine, so obviously things were a bit confusing for her.

‘She didn’t quite realise [where she was] at that particular time and obviously she was quite drowsy.’

He said he feared the outcome could have been more serious. 

He told The Sun: ‘It is unbelievable. What if they gave my mum the wrong medication? I thought patients wear wristbands so this can’t happen.’ 

Mrs Wright had been in hospital following a hip operation.

She was reportedly mistaken for another female patient who was ready to go home.

Mr Wright said he had been told his mother had been taken home instead of the patient in the room next door.

‘This clearly falls below the standard of care we want to deliver. A review is under way to ensure it does not happen again,’ a statement from the trust said

A statement from United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust and East Midlands Ambulance Service read: ‘We have spoken with both patients and their families to offer our heartfelt and sincere apologies.

‘This clearly falls below the standard of care we want to deliver. A review is under way to ensure it does not happen again.’ 

The trust has since launched an investigation into how the mix-up occurred. 

Mrs Wright is reportedly well and in ‘good spirits’.