A CARE assistant has blasted health chiefs for moving her sick sister as part of East Lancashire’s hospital shake-up moves.

Elaine Scott was being treated for post-operative complications following hip surgery at Burnley General Hospital when a decision was taken to move her to a ward at the Royal Blackburn Hospital.

People under the care of the Burnley hospital were transferred wholesale, like Mrs Scott, at the end of November 2007, as part of the Meeting Patients Needs programme.

An inquest at Burnley Coroner’s Court heard that Mrs Scott, 51, was moved on October 30 and died on November 2.

Post-mortem tests showed she was suffering from the effects of heart disease, which would have made her recovery from hip surgery more difficult.

She also had to overcome an infection to her post-operative wounds.

But her sister Sheila Kirby, who used to live near the Casterton Avenue hospital in Burnley, was still critical of the decision to move Mrs Scott.

She said: “That is absolutely terrible – to transfer someone when they were so ill. The nurses were absolutely heartbroken.”

Pathologist Dr Richard Prescott said the cause of death was heart disease, with Mrs Scott’s fractured hip and post-operative infection listed as contributory factors.

He added that there was evidence of narrowing of her arteries, which would have hampered her recovery from the surgery and infection.

The inquest heard that Mrs Scott had survived brain tumour surgery in her 20s which had a considerable impact on her life.

She lived at a number of institutions, most recently Heightside Nursing Home, Newchurch Road, Rawtenstall, where she was said to be ‘very happy’, according to her sister.

But the inquest heard that she suffered a fall at the home in June 2007, which led to hip surgery at Burnley General.

Recording an accident verdict, East Lancashire coroner Richard Taylor said that the original fall had caused the chain of events which eventually led to Mrs Scott’s death.