Cancer notes 'in India'

A patient has been told he has cancer - but that his medical notes were lost after being sent to India.

Ian Ward was devastated to learn the notes, which included a diagnosis, had gone missing on their way to being typed up.

Instead, the ex-policeman was talked through his scans by a consultant who confirmed he had non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Mr Ward, 56, from Emsworth, Hampshire, had previously fought off the disease.

He said: "I find it ludicrous that we have the best health service in the world and yet we have to send off notes to a Third World country."

St Mary's Hospital in Portsmouth, where Mr Ward was treated, said the notes had been in the computer system but got caught up in a backlog.