A HOSPITAL is investigating how an elderly patient managed to give staff the slip and travel eight miles in torrential rain wearing only his vest and tracksuit bottoms.

The man, in his seventies, left the coronary care unit with a drip in his arm after receiving a blood transfusion at Bishop Auckland General Hospital, County Durham.

Police were told it was the second time he had gone missing from the hospital.

The patient, who is not being named, disappeared after being taken to the toilet last Tuesday night. Staff immediately called the police, who mounted a search.

Less than two hours later, the man turned up safe and well at his daughter's home, in Chilton, having apparently caught a bus. Drip tubes were still attached to his body.

His daughter said: "I am not blaming the hospital. We are all amazed that my dad managed to walk so far in such a frail condition."

A spokesman for South Durham Health Care NHS Trust said: "A search was launched but he eventually turned up at a relative's home. He apparently told his family he did not wish to return to hospital, which is his prerogative. It is not a prison."