‘Serious staffing issues’ contributed to the ‘awful’ circumstances behind an 89-year-old’s death at Weston General Hospital, her family has said, after the infirmary paid out £9,000 because of the poor quality of her care.

Weston pensioner Dorothy Rennie was admitted to the hospital by her GP after contracting a urinary infection, but died barely two weeks later following what her family call a ‘pathetic’ string of events, which saw her suffer a broken leg and develop a fatal clot in her lung.

The Unite union was contacted by her son Alex and carried out an investigation into the incident, and said staffing shortages had left her without the one-to-one care she should have received – and ultimately contributed to her death.

Mr Rennie told the Mercury things ‘went downhill’ when she first arrived at the Grange Road hospital, and she was left in ‘absolute agony’ when guidance from her Uphill care home about treating a chronic back problem went missing for over a week.

He said he told hospital staff repeatedly her mental condition was declining, but found they ‘didn’t seem to take any notice’.

Instead of receiving the one-to-one care she needed, Mrs Rennie was instead admitted to Cheddar ward, where things became so bad other visitors told her son they had asked staff to do something about her crying, which could be heard from the corridors.

And it was on that ward that she later suffered a broken leg, after a nurse helped her to a commode and then left the ‘disorientated’ patient to herself.

Mrs Rennie became so tired of waiting for help, she attempted to get back into bed but fell and fractured her femur.

She was operated on by doctors the next day but complications from the operation left her with a blood clot in her lung – and she died within nine days.

Staff had promised to meet the family in the wake of her death, in April 2014, and again after her inquest in January last year. But two years on, they have still heard nothing.

Mr Rennie said: “It was so awful to see our mother in so much pain in her final days. We tried to explain time and again that her mental abilities were declining but the staff didn’t seem to take any notice. There was a problem with the staffing levels but it wasn’t just that.

“When she had her fall we were promised a meeting – but that never happened. When she died they again promised to meet us, but we are still yet to hear from them about this.

“When she went into the hospital, everything went downhill. She was suffering so much she didn’t really know where she was. She should’ve been getting painkillers for her back at regular intervals but they were waiting for her to be in pain. She was either comatose or in absolute agony.

“It’s not about the money, but it’s pathetic this can happen in this day and age. I only took action because of the complete failure of the hospital to contact us, the £9,000 includes funeral costs so it doesn’t amount to much.”

The Unite union provided Mr Rennie and his family with free legal representation, and with help from Bristol-based Thompson Solicitors, they finally received the admission for liability from the hospital this month.

Malcolm Green, of Unite, said: “Clearly, the hospital has a serious staffing issue that contributed to our member’s mother’s death. The coroner found that the standard of care given to Mrs Rennie fell below the expected standard.

“The hospital admitted that there were eight patients on the ward at the time, two of which had been assessed as needing one-to-one nursing care, yet only three nurses were present on the ward.”

WAHT told the Mercury a recruitment drive for nurses had addressed the staffing issues Mrs Rennie had encountered, and offered a ‘sincere apology’ for her treatment.

Helen Richardson, the trust’s director of nursing, said: “We would like to offer our sincere apologies to Dorothy Rennie’s family and for the distress that this has caused.

“My team of nurses are highly committed and care deeply about their patients, but we fully accept that on this occasion we fell short of providing the standard of care expected for Mrs Rennie.

“We strive to learn from mistakes and work hard to continually improve our treatment and care.

“Since Mrs Rennie’s incident we have done considerable amounts of work around assessing patients at risk of falling and fall prevention to improve the care we deliver to our patients.”