Shocking cancer patient story

Dear Editor,
I was shocked to read your report on the cancer patient who was left for five hours on church steps with nowhere to go after being discharged from hospital in Porto.
How can these sorts of things happen in the 21st century in a developed country like Portugal?
In no situation whatsoever should the woman have been discharged from the hospital if she had nowhere to go – especially if she was experiencing “excruciating pain” like your article says.
I saw how my grandmother gradually became weaker and weaker in her battle against lung cancer, and it pains me to think that she could have been released and left to her own devices by those supposedly caring for her, just as this woman was.
I do not believe the hospital is lying when they say that the woman told them she had family to go home to… but still, they had a moral duty to make sure the woman did in fact have somewhere to go and enough medication to ease her pain.
Hopefully, this kind of situation will not repeat itself and Rosa can rest and recover with the tranquillity and care she needs and deserves.
Marie Jones, by email