Patient died after failure to provide routine medication.

An elderly woman who survived Covid, died after her routine medication was not restarted, a coroner has heard.

Nora Foulkes, 87, suffered from hypothyroidism, but her routine treatment was stopped when she contracted Covid in December 2020.

She died from cardiorespiratory failure in April 2021 at Glan Clwyd Hospital, Wales, a post-mortem examination revealed.

Failure to restart the drug when she returned to her care home contributed to her death, the inquest found.

The senior coroner for North Wales, John Gittins, has written to Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board about the failure to restart the levothyroxine medication, which had been agreed at meetings between Advanced Nurse Practioners (ANPs) and her care home.

The coroner was told ANPs had been involved in Ms Foulkes' care on six occasions but the fact that she had not restarted the medication was missed each time

The coroner has also published a Prevention of Future Deaths Report following the inquest.

In his PFD report to Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, Mr Gittins said: "There were multiple opportunities for this error to be spotted and corrected but this did not happen because no consideration was being given by the ANPs to the patient's medication regime to ensure that appropriate treatment was being provided.”

He added that, largely because of time restraints, the ANPs did not check Mrs Foulkes’ medication charts during their visits.

He said: “I am concerned that the absence of proper scrutiny, or review of the medication of elderly patients in care homes during each visit, presents a risk to life as it can lead to the type of error which occurred in this case not being identified.”