Hospital chief gave false assurance to bereaved family

A woman taken to the accident and emergency department at Basildon General Hospital with severe pain in her side was told to go home after oxygen and an injection, writes Nicholas Timmins.

When her family protested, she was admitted but died within 24 hours. Over the next three days, three different death certificates were written, with a hospital officer tearing one up in front of the family. When the family complained, the hospital's chief executive assured them procedures had been tightened, but the Ombudsman found the assurance was "without foundation".

St Charles Hospital in London allowed a woman with a lump in her breast to cancel her operation twice - despite knowing she had cancer. She was not aware she might have the disease and was only told just before surgery. The hospital kept no record of what she had been told of her condition. "The conveying of the news of the biopsy report in an office occupied by a secretary, and containing files marked 'deceased' was wholly unsatisfactory."

At King's College Hospital, London, a woman with chest pain and shortage of breath had a 19-hour wait on a trolley in the emergency room undergoing increasing discomfort and anxiety. Although the delay was "exceptional", long waits were common, the Ombudsman said, and the trust's charter standard that patients should be admitted immediately or at worst within 4 hours was "a dead letter". "It is self-evidence that where demand on a service outstrips available resources, delays would occur," the Ombudsman said. Staff were not culpable.

At Hillingdon Hospital, the parents of a young man who died of bone cancer were dissatisfied with his treatment and sought a meeting with the consultant. The chief executive refused one, on the grounds that patient's records could not be found. Once the Ombudsman began to investigate, the records were found.