Patient, 85, died after bleach left in her bedside water jug

♦ A vulnerable patient who died in hospital after drinking cleaning fluid left in a jug by her bedside has led to fears of further deaths as a coroner warned “it could happen again”, an inquest heard.

Joan Blaber, 85, from Lewes, East Sussex, died six days after drinking the fluid as she was recovering from a stroke at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton in September last year.

Police, the hospital and the Care Quality Commission investigated but have failed to uncover how the poisonous liquid came to be in a bedside water jug.

Veronica Hamilton-deeley, the Brighton coroner, said it was “incredibly worrying” that none of the investigations had shed any light on the issue.

“It’s probably no exaggeration to say no one can say why it happened, so it could happen again,” she said yesterday.

The cause of death was recorded as respiratory failure due to pneumonia. The hearing continues.