A new mother was forced to wait in a hospital's reception despite needing urgent treatment after part of the placenta was left inside her during childbirth.

Now the Medway NHS Foundation Trust has apologised and paid the patient £500, a report by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman has revealed.

The complaint was one of a handful investigated by the watchdog against several health trusts in Kent and Medway.

It heard how the woman, named only as Ms R, gave birth in 2013, but a week later she was readmitted with postnatal bleeding and infection after some of the placenta was left inside her uterus.

When in labour, Trust staff failed to assess the exact position of her baby at an early stage - initially preparing to deliver the baby with a caesarean.

But, a week after giving birth, the patient started sweating and shaking, and complained of a foul-smelling discharge.

During a routine appointment, midwives didn't take her temperature and, two days later, she rushed into Medway Maritime Hospital with blood loss.

The Ombudsman's report said she was "unreasonably asked to wait in reception although she visibly needed urgent attention".

The complaint was partly upheld, saying that "had appropriate communication, support and pain relief been given", Ms R's experience could have been quite different.

There was, however, no evidence to suggest the clinical decisions about the delivery were inappropriate.

The Ombudsman agreed treatment for the patient's uterine infection could have been dealt with earlier if midwives had taken Ms R's temperature earlier - but there was nothing to prove her temperature had been raised.

The report also said medical staff should have offered pain relief to Ms R during the examination for her haemorrhage and infection.

Health chiefs at the trust have now prepared action plans to describe what they are doing to prevent a similar situation in future.

In total, seven complaints were made to the ombudsman for the Kent and Medway areas.

In one case, a woman (Miss G) complained that her entire family had been removed from a Kent GP practice - because she had missed three appointments in 12 months.

The ombudsman ruled that it was unreasonable to remove her partner (Mr W) from the list as he had not missed any appointments.

It said: "It was unfair that he had effectively been removed simply because of his association with Miss G."

The practice apologised to Mr W.

In a separate case Mrs D complained about not getting treatment from the Medway NHS Foundation Trust after being diagnosed with cancer.

She said she suffered distress, and was concerned her life expectancy had been affected.

The complaint arose out of a scan showed Mrs D had cancer after complaining of rectal bleeding.

But, three months later, the trust still had to decide on the best course of treatment.

The complaint was partly upheld.

Mrs D, the ombudsman said, had a complex medical history, which delayed treatment.

However, "as a consequence of administrative and medical failings, the Trust took too long to get the specialist advice."

The ombudsman ruled it was unlikely the delays had a significant impact on Mrs D's life expectancy.

The trust acknowledged its failings and paid the patient £500 compensation. It set up an action plan to prevent such failings happening again.

A spokesman for the trust said it had read the report and there wasn't anything to say, other than the action points included in the report.

Today's ombudsman report is the fifth in a series of regular summaries of investigations.

It says: "The short... stories it contains illustrate the profound impact that failures in public services can have on the lives of individuals and their families."