A hospital increased a patient's dosage of a powerful drug five-fold after she gave them incorrect information, an inquest has heard.

Liver transplant patient Norma Giles was admitted to Leicester Royal Infirmary in January 2011 suffering from severe sickness and diarrhoea.

She died, on February 19, of pneumonia related to the use of anti-rejection drugs.

Yesterday's inquest, at Leicester Town Hall, heard Mrs Giles had above the recommended dose of anti-rejection drug tacrolimus in her bloodstream when she was admitted to the infirmary.

Mrs Giles (66) of Dominion Road, Glenfield, had made good progress after her transplant in 2005 at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham.

She attended clinics in Birmingham and Leicester where her drugs were assessed to see her body was not rejecting the liver.

Among those drugs was tacrolimus, prescribed at 2ml a day.

The inquest heard that in August 2009 Mrs Giles wrongly told Dr Chris Dobson, a registrar at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, that her dosage was 5ml twice a day.

He wrote to her GP to "continue with the 5ml twice a day."

Dr Dobson said transplant patients were normally very accurate about their drugs.

However Mrs Giles had not been previously prescribed such an increase. The first time she received the higher dose was when the GP responded to Dr Dobson's letter in September 2009.

Consultant in liver medicine at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Dr Dhiraj Tripathi said there was no record of Mrs Giles' dosage being increased.

However, blood tests taken after the dosage increase showed that the level of tacrolimus in her blood was in the normal range on a scale of 5 to 15 or just below.

Dr Allister Grant, the infirmary's consultant hepatologist, said when Mrs Grant was admitted she had a rating of 20.

He said that one blood test for tacrolimus levels taken in 2010, at the infimary had not been measured and that she had missed two clinic appointments in 2010. It was only when the GP prescriptions were checked that the increased dosage was uncovered, he said.

The inquest heard the infirmary carried out a review which recommended improved procedures about blood tests, better liaison between the infirmary and Birmingham and referring of patients who miss hospital clinic appointments to their GPs.

Coroner Lydia Brown recorded a narrative verdict that Mrs Giles underwent a liver transplant, later developed complications related to necessary immuno-suppressant therapy and died at the Leicester Royal Infirmary.

A spokesman for the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust expressed condolences to Mrs Giles' family and friends.