Caregiver angry as 93-year-old patient sent home in taxi

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A caregiver says an elderly Wanganui woman had to be carried to her door by a taxi driver and sat in a chair on her doorstep waiting to get back inside her locked home after inadequate treatment from the Whanganui District Health Board.

The 93-year-old had been sent away from Wanganui Hospital for the second time in five days after complaining of severe spinal pain.

Maureen McMillan has complained to the health board, saying the experience was one "I hope I never have to deal with again".

McMillan said her client was first treated on June 13 but was discharged the next day "with no extra medication or discharge papers".

On June 18 an ambulance took her back to hospital but McMillan said she was put into a taxi, again without extra pain relief and discharge papers, later in the day.

"A neighbour had been given the key to my client's home but unfortunately she was out when the taxi arrived. The taxi driver had to carry my client as she was unable to walk and he put her in a chair outside her door to wait for the return of her neighbour."

Neighbours saw her and took her into another building to warm her. "Within an hour of being discharged she was back in hospital and is now in a surgical ward."

Sandy Blake, the health board's director of nursing, patient safety and quality, said the board was investigating.