A schools inspector died after hospital medics failed to spot she had fractured her neck in a fall, an inquest heard.

Conservative Party stalwart Joan Mary North, known as Mary, suffered a fractured odontoid peg - part of the spine - after a fall on March 19.

The 82-year-old, a former president of the Croydon Conservative Federation, was admitted to Croydon University Hospital's accident and emergency department the same day but doctors felt she did not need an X-ray and she was discharged.

An outpatient appointment with a physiotherapist revealed the fracture and she was readmitted in April 5 and died in hospital on April 13.

The cause of death from the autopsy was given as a heart attack, but the fractured odontoid neck pain was given as a contributing factor.

Mrs North was a domestic science teacher before she became a schools inspector and her dedication was rewarded with an OBE in 1997 for her services to politics and education.

At an inquest into her death a Croydon Coroner’s Court on Thursday, her friend Shirley Trimmer described the agony Mrs North was in when she was being discharged.

She said: “I watched my friend die in the most ghastly situation imaginable and it could have been stopped if she had been admitted.”

Croydon University Hospital chief executive Nick Hulme wrote to Mrs Trimmer to apologise for not dealing with Mrs North’s pain sufficiently.

Turn to 4 Mrs Trimmer said Mrs North should have been kept in overnight “if only for the shock”, which meant somebody would have noticed the fractured neck.

She said: “She was terribly upset.

“She said ‘they are going to send me home’ and I thought they had made a mistake.

“She was saying ‘my neck hurts so badly’, please do something’ but the nurse was adamant.”

Mrs Trimmer hoped the inquest would mean the same mistakes were not made again.

Chief executive Mr Hulme said the doctors carried out a five point Nexus test to see if Mrs North’s neck needed an X-ray and results indicated she did not.

He added Mrs North could move her neck 45 degrees in both directions and this contributed to the decision to discharge her.

But he admitted she was experiencing a lot of pain and she should not have been discharged.

Gavin Marsh, medical director at the hospital, told the inquest the accident and emergency department gets 400 patients a day and cannot admit them all.

He said the proviso was that if the condition gets worse then come back to hospital.

He said: “The prediction was that Mary’s pain would go away in a day or two and she will be fine but that did not happen.”

He blamed fewer beds and performance markers putting pressure on how many people can be admitted, saying 20 years ago this would not have happened.

Mr Hulme said staff involved in the case had been “re-educated” about how to deal with similar situations.

Dr Roy Palmer, Croydon coroner, read a report from Mrs North’s GP which showed she had suffered from multiple health problems including heart disease.