A GRIEVING widow was left in tears when a hospital letter was sent out to her husband three months after he died.

Jill Head was angry and upset when Dorset County Hospital sent her husband Don a survey asking him to rate the care he received while he was a patient there “It’s awful,” she said.

“I just went to pieces and cried when I got it.

“I was just angry that anybody could make a mistake like that.”

The hospital apologised for the error stating that they do check their patient records before sending the in-patient surveys.

Mrs Head, 71, said she was also upset by the nature of some of the questions.

The survey instructions state questions should be answered by the person named on the front of the envelope and if they need help to complete the questionnaire the answers should be from their point of view.

The survey asks if Mr Head was given any information on what he should do after leaving hospital and if he felt he was involved in decisions about his discharge.

The retired police constable for Preston was admitted to hospital from the couple’s home in Enkworth Road in Preston, Weymouth at the start of June.

He had suffered long running health problems caused by diabetes.

When it became apparent that he would not survive kidney failure the 74-year-old was transferred from Hinton Ward to the Joseph Weld Hospice as he always told his wife that he wanted to die there and he passed away on June 11 after spending a day there.

Mrs Head said on June 13 her daughter phoned the hospital to tell staff he had died.

She said: “When you are widowed you expect some post coming through so I’ve written to everybody who sends us Christmas cards because I don’t think I’m going to be able to manage that very well.”

She wants the hospital to make sure this does not happen again.

She added: “If it was an old person who was alone or recently bereaved it could be enough to give them a heart attack and it could be the end.

“I probably would’ve had a heart attack if it had arrived before my pacemaker was put in two weeks ago.” A spokesperson for Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust said: “We make every effort to ensure that surveys are not sent to patients who have died by checking our patient records system before issuing correspondence.

“It is unfortunate that the system did not work in this case and we apologise for any distress caused to the family.”

'Nobody deserves this'

DON Head died aged 74 after battling health problems caused by diabetes.

He had used a wheelchair since being unable to walk for the last two years and his wife Jill Head was his registered carer.

Mr Head enjoyed a career with the Royal Navy and Dorset Police before retiring.

He was a radio supervisor as a petty officer in the Royal Navy for 12 years.

He served in “The Cod Wars” in the 1970s dispute between Britain and Iceland over fishing waters in the North Atlantic.

He then served as the police constable in Studland, Evershot and then Preston in his 27-year long police career.

Mrs Head will be scattering his ashes in a Royal Navy ceremony at sea next year.

She said: “He was a lovely man and he was very well thought of.

“It was a privilege to have been married to him and nurse him through his troubles.

“We had a ball together and nobody deserves to be treated like that.”