A WOMAN whose mother died of a bowel infection says she intends to make a formal complaint after she was left to care for her by herself during her final days.

Sandra Ashfield, from Ellesmere Port, said she was “very close” to her mother Gladys, who passed away after battling a C. diff infection at the beginning of February this year.

C. diff is a bacterium which causes diarrhoea and colitis (an inflammation of the colon), which meant Gladys was in significant pain throughout the final days of her life.

Despite her declining health, a palliative care referral for Gladys was declined, with Sandra having to continue care duties on her own.

Gladys lost a significant amount of weight due to the infection, and Sandra said helping her to go to the toilet was “like changing a baby.”

Gladys sadly died in the early hours of Friday morning (February 2), aged 87.

Sandra said: “I thought somebody would be out to help me. It felt like I was on my own. My cousins tried to help me as much as they could.

“She was a lovely lady. She had been blind all her life and she was riddled with osteoporosis which made everything more difficult. For her to die in that sort of pain, it haunts me.”

Sandra has criticised Hope Farm Medical Centre in Ellesmere Port and the Community Specialist Palliative Care team for Cheshire West, saying that care should have been put in place for Gladys and efforts should have been made to ensure that she had greater access to doctors from the surgery.

The Standard has approached both Hope Farm Medical Centre and the Palliative Care team, who have declined to comment.

Ellesmere Port MP Justin Madders is understood to be facilitating a meeting between Cheshire and Wirral Partnership (CWP) NHS Foundation Trust and Ms Ashfield, who is planning to take the matter forward.