A woman with a potentially fatal blood clot in her lungs should have had more tests before being sent home from Darent Valley Hospital, an official body has ruled.

The patient was put through “avoidable distress” by Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust’s failure to find and treat her pulmonary embolism, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman said.

The report, released earlier this week, detailed dozens of errors and failures as well as 93 complaints against the NHS, made between July and September last year.

In the case of the Kent patient, known only as Mrs N, it was ruled that “the Trust should have done further tests to check for a blood clot on Mrs N’s lung before discharging her”.

She was paid £100 in recognition of this, as well as receiving an apology – whilst Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust has introduced an action plan to try and stop something similar happening again.

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Pulmonary embolisms are potentially life-threatening, because the condition can prevent blood from reaching the patient’s lungs.

Mrs N was diagnosed by a private doctor just a week after she sought treatment in the Dartford hospital’s A&E department.

The report read: “Mrs N was distressed that the Trust had left her without treatment for a potentially serious problem.”

Mrs N complained to the Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust, which accepted that it should have carried out further tests – and sent her statements from the doctors involved in her care.

However, the patient was unhappy with the trust’s explanation – and the length of time it took to respond to her complaint.

She complained to the ombudsman, who partly upheld her complaint.

The ombudsman did, however, accept that doctors at Darent Valley told her to come back if she was still unwell – in which case the trust would have probably found the blood clot.

The report also revealed that Dorset Healthcare University Trust missed opportunities to prevent a depressed woman committing suicide, Chesterfield Royal University could have carried out an essential scan to save a child who was stillborn, and Great Ormond Street Hospital could have saved a two-year-old child who died.

Meanwhile Barts Health NHS Trust oversaw a “serious clinical failing” when a dying cancer patient was prescribed laxatives for five weeks, despite having diarrhoea.

Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust manages Darent Valley Hospital, Dartford; Queen Mary’s Hospital, Sidcup; Erith and District Hospital; and Elm Court, a nurse-led unit within the grounds of Priory Mews Nursing home in Watling Street, Dartford.