Trust sorry over answerphone error

A teenage patient was left an answering machine message by hospital staff who inadvertently branded her a smelly drunk, drug addict.

Senior officials at the James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough, have apologised to 19-year-old Sharon Roberts from Stockton, after staff from the Genito Urinary Medicine clinic were caught out gossiping when they thought a call to her home had finished.

Apparently looking at medical notes, they discuss her alcohol consumption, alleged to be 100 units a week, and chat about her Iraqi Kurdish boyfriend.

One woman in the office says to another: "Oh yeah, but come on, who else is going to have her, bless her.

"She smells, she had black teeth. She's a typical either druggie or alkie because she's dead skinny."

Miss Roberts has called for the women to be sacked, and demanded compensation for her hurt feelings.

She said: "I was really disgusted when I heard it. I felt physically sick. These people are supposed to be helping people.

"They said I drink 100 units a week but that was a load of rubbish. I don't drink that much and I've never touched drugs in my life.

"I had anorexia when I was younger and that's why I'm so thin. I want compensation and I want them sacked."

South Tees Hospital NHS Trust regretted the offence caused. Chief executive Simon Pleydell said: "We would like to apologise unreservedly to Miss Roberts for the distress this has caused."

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