Apologies to Family of 15-Stone Woman

Christine MacPherson, 68, was taken to Blackpool Victoria Hospital by her daughters after a fall on stairs at home. Ann MacPherson-Chambers claims she and her sister had to move their mother into an accident and emergency bed, nurses refused in case they injured their backs lifting her.

Allegedly Christine was also not seen to by staff for an hour after admission,was not given her medication or had blood cleaned off her face. Ms MacPherson-Chambers said a number of nurses could have helped to move her mother and she was 'mortified' that they would not. Ms MacPherson-Chambers also says: 'She's got no right to dignity, pretty much what my mum had they took away, and now it's a case of re-building the trust and embarrassment my mum's feeling, the shame, she's now trying to come to terms with'.

Marie Thompson, Director of Nursing and Quality for Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said:

'We are extremely concerned to hear that Ms MacPherson-Chambers had reason to complain about the standards of care and treatment her mother received whilst a patient at Blackpool Victoria Hospital.

We are unable to comment in detail at this time as we do not yet have the full facts.

However, it is clear that the standards of care Mrs Macpherson received were at times totally unacceptable and we would like to offer our sincere apologies to her and her family.

Our aim is to ensure that all of our patients experience the highest possible standards of care and that they are treated with dignity and respect at all times.

We take all complaints extremely seriously and we would like to reassure Mrs Macpherson-Chambers that the Trust is carrying out a thorough investigation.

A meeting has taken place between the Trust and Ms MacPherson-Chambers to discuss her concerns in detail. We will now be speaking to the staff who were involved with her mother's care and once our investigations are complete we will provide the family with a full written response'.