THE grieving family of a Whitehaven woman say she was treated with “a lack of dignity and respect” by health workers during her final months.

Elaine Christiansen died in February aged 68, having been diagnosed with lung cancer nine months earlier. Her family – sons Steven, Graham, Brian and Darren and daughter Samantha – say the care she received, initially by the Lowther Medical Centre, Whitehaven, and latterly in the West Cumberland Hospital, was sub-standard.

Official complaints have been lodged by the family with both organisations, who have offered to respond personally to their grievances.

“My mam should have been treated with dignity and respect, and she wasn’t,” said Samantha. “We were told that, with treatment, mam could have been with us for another four or five years. But she died less than a year later.”

The sub-standard care Mrs Christiansen received, the family claims, included:

- Despite reporting breathing problems/sickness to her GP (at Lowther) on a number of occasions, she was not sent for a CT scan. When she was eventually scanned – after the family had complained – it revealed five tumours on her lungs. On one occasion, she was told by a GP she needed to “eat more soup”;

- staff at the WCH insisted Mrs Christiansen use a commode rather than assisting her to the toilet, despite her sharing a room with others;

- safety barriers were not put on the sides of Mrs Christiansen’s bed, leading to a fall on one occasion;

- staff attempted to fit a stent in her throat when Mrs Christiansen was not under general anaesthetic, despite her requests that she should be;

- district nurses failed to change a dressing on a sore foot;

- she was kept waiting hours for pain-relief medication;

- a buzzer she used to attract nurses’ attention was taken away through the night;

- staff tried to pressure her into going to the Cumberland Infirmary for radiotherapy despite advice she was not well enough to travel.

Samantha said: “I asked for mam to be put on the cancer ward where they were better equipped to deal with her, but was told that it was for end-of-life treatment only. At the end of her life, I asked every day for her to be moved, but they said firstly there were no beds, and then that she was too poorly to move.

“We were never sat down and told how the cancer had spread and how long she had. We kept having to find things out for ourselves.

“She lived for her family and we were – and are still – very bitter about the way she was treated.”

Maurya Cushlow, executive director of nursing at North Cumbria University Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “On behalf of the Trust, I would like to offer my sincere condolences to Mrs Christiansen’s family. Whilst it would be inappropriate to comment publicly on any individual’s care, we will be responding fully to the complaint.

“We take learning from any complaints we receive very seriously and we hope that Mrs Christiansen’s family accept our invitation to meet with them in order to discuss their concerns further.”

Lowther Medical Centre was put into special measures following an inspection in August last year. A spokesperson said: “We have responded in person to the family in this case. We take the standard of the care that we give to our patients very seriously and we are saddened that the family were hurt or let down in any way.”