Appalling care at Queen's led to my father's death says former MP

Milo Butler, 73, was admitted to Queen's Hospital, Romford, suffering from a suspected stroke. But it took two weeks for doctors to correctly diagnose him with chronic sinusitis, according to his daughter, former Labour MP Dawn Butler. By this time he was blind in one eye from an infection he caught in hospital.

He was also given steroids. Ms Butler said she later learned that the drugs "accelerated and aggravated" his condition. He died from an unrelated sinus infection.

Ms Butler today demanded answers from hospital bosses. She said her father suffered poor care, was not given medication on time and believes the steroids led to his death. In a complaint to Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust, Ms Butler accuses one doctor of lying to her - claiming sinusitis had been ruled out by a CT scan, when the condition was only picked up once her father's health worsened.

Mr Butler, from Leytonstone, was admitted to Queen's in November last year. He had tests to rule out a stroke but it took more than a fortnight - after requests from his family to check his sinuses - for the right diagnosis to be made, his daughter claimed.

Ms Butler added he was referred to Moorfield's Eye Hospital for tests, where he was given medication for an infection he caught at Queen's. She said that once back at the Essex hospital, his eye drops were not administered as prescribed. When he was discharged after three weeks, he was given steroids. He died in March.

Ms Butler said her father, who had underlying health issues, including a weakened immune system, should never have been put on a general ward. She said: "It was totally shocking to witness the appalling practices at Queens. This is not the care that families expect when they leave their loved ones."

Deborah Wheeler, director of nursing at the trust, said: "We are carrying out an investigation into Mr Butler's care. He had a complex medical history and we are confident that he was prescribed the appropriate medication for his condition." A recent report has warned of a "culture of abuse" at the hospital.

The inquiry by NHS watchdog the Care Quality Commission also revealed poor standards were widespread and "unacceptably high".

Hospital facing barrage of complaints

Queen's Hospital is the subject of a series of complaints from patients and the NHS watchdog over poor standards of care.

The hospital trust faces legal action by 12 women or their relatives over care they received in the maternity department. Five women have died in 18 months after going into labour.

The trust has admitted Sareena Ali, 27, who died and whose baby was stillborn in January, received "unacceptable" standards of care.

An inquiry into the death of Violet Stephens, 35, in April, found that after she had been admitted with pre-eclampsia - a potentially life-threatening condition - there was a "succession of failures".

A report by NHS watchdog the Care Quality Commission said women in the maternity unit were routinely ignored, left alone for long periods while in labour, and had not received adequate pain relief.

In one case a woman was told she needed to hurry up and give birth as the midwife's shift finished at 7am. The commission also found A&E services had failed to reach four-hour targets for admissions, and at busy times the "quality of services began to collapse".

Scans that could detect cancer often went unreported, which had "resulted in poorer outcomes for patients".

The commission ordered the trust to make immediate improvements in 16 key areas. It will monitor the trust with unannounced inspections and decide whether to take further action at the end of March.