A Shropshire coroner has called for better communication between Shropdoc and GP surgeries after hearing how seven doctors dealt with a sick Telford woman in the days before her death.

Mr Michael Gwynne, Telford & Wrekin coroner, said it had been traumatic for anxious husband Robert Smith to relate his wife Janet’s medical history virtually every time to a different person.

He said he did not understand why Shropdoc did not have automatic access to a patient’s GP records.

Retired shop assistant Mrs Smith, of Strine Close, Wellington, died of multi-organ failure in the intensive care unit at the Princess Royal Hospital on April 17, a Wellington inquest heard.

The 53-year-old mother-of-two and stepmother-of-three, who had breast and lung cancer, had part of her lung removed at North Staffordshire Hospital, Stoke-on-Trent, in February.

She went home after apparently making a good recovery, but was admitted to hospital as an emergency on April 10 after developing an abscess in the chest.

Her husband, a security guard, said he had called Shropdoc or Wellington Medical Practice every day between April 2 and 10 because of his wife’s condition. Seven different doctors and one nurse had been involved, either making home visits or telephone diagnoses, he said.

Recording a narrative verdict, Mr Gwynne said: “Mrs Smith underwent a necessary operation for lung cancer. Notwithstanding that operation, she developed an infection near to its site and died from complications of that infection.

“I am going to see whether it is possible to increase the two-way flow of communication between Shropdoc and medical practices as I feel diagnosis can only be made with a full picture.”

The coroner said although continuity of out of hours treatment was an ongoing issue in Shropshire, there was no question of negligence.

After the inquest, Mr Smith said: “The hardest thing to accept is there was a chance but it was missed and we will never get it back.”

By Peter Johnson