Gran died travelling 250 miles for NHS treatment

A GRANDMOTHER died in a private ambulance on a motorway hard shoulder after being driven more than 250 miles from her care home for out-of-area mental health treatment, an inquest has heard.

Peggy Copeman, 81, had never previously left her home county of Norfolk before she was taken from St Mary’s residential home in New Buckenham to Cygnet Hospital in Taunton, Somerset, on December 12, 2019.

In a statement read by the coroner at the inquest in Norwich, Mrs Copeman’s daughter Maxine Fulcher said that she died on the return leg four days later on December 16.

She described her mother as “giving and affectionate” and someone who “took pride in her appearance” from an early age.

Mrs Fulcher said Mrs Copeman, who was first diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in the late 1960s, moved into a care home in 2014 after showing signs of dementia.

Dr Ashish Pandey, consultant psychiatrist for Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT), said “there was a deterioration in [Mrs Copeman’s] presentation” and she had a mental health assessment on December 10, 2019.

He said Mrs Copeman was “shouting, kicking, punching staff members and other residents”, throwing food and talking to people who were not there.

“She had reported that she’s a queen and having a baby,” he said.

“She thought it was World War Two and staff members were Russian.”

He said that during her assessment it was noted that she “appeared frail and thin-built”.

Matthew Rushmere, community mental health nurse for NSFT, said Mrs Copeman’s needs were “unmanageable at the care home”.