A woman died from a brain haemorrhage after she was turned away by three hospitals because they had no beds available.
Mary Muldowney, 57, was admitted to East Surrey Hospital in Redhill on July 20 last year, where tests showed that she was suffering bleeds on the brain and needed immediate surgery.
Specialist neurosurgical units at St George’s Hospital in Tooting, southwest London; the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton; and King’s College Hospital in Denmark Hill, south London, refused to take her because they had no beds. She was eventually sent to the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, east London, after doctors used a personal connection, even though it also had no free bed.
Mary Hassell, the coroner for inner north London, wrote to