Patient died at private hospital 'where staff had no life-support training'

A senior Cabinet Minister has called for an inquiry after serious failings in patient care were uncovered at a private hospital in London.

The failures at Roding Hospital in Redbridge emerged in an investigation by the Evening Standard and BBC London. Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith described the case as "one of the worst" he had seen.

A whistleblower alleged staff were "grossly negligent" and bosses ignored her when she raised "dangerous working practices". Leaked documents show 20 Roding staff were not trained in basic life support in July 2009.

Four months earlier, Charlie Leahy, 59, died after coming in for routine bowel cancer treatment. Whistleblower Julie Moody, 55, a former senior nurse at Roding, and the Leahy family, of Bow, uncovered hundreds of pages of medical notes that suggest failings in his treatment. Mr Leahy, an accountant and accomplished singer, was admitted to Roding in March 2009 with diarrhoea and dehydration. He had terminal cancer, but the night before he died his wife Mary was told he was doing "very well" and was expected to be discharged.

Internal medical documents show he was prescribed a high dose of potassium to be administered over four hours at 7pm. High potassium can trigger cardiac arrest. His patient notes reveal a nurse noticed his blood potassium level was normal and spoke to a doctor at 9pm, who halved the dose.

Mr Leahy suffered a cardiac arrest at 8am on March 27, and was pronounced dead at 8.25am. A clinical audit report obtained by the family also shows he had only one shot of adrenaline during his arrest, which lasted 25 minutes.

Resuscitation Council guidelines tell medics to administer adrenaline every three to five minutes during an arrest.

Backed by a current member of staff, Mrs Moody also alleged that equipment to check blood pressure, temperature and heart rate was routinely missing or broken. She claimed Roding employed some agency doctors whose knowledge and English was so poor they relied on nurses. But despite contacting health watchdogs and coroners, no organisation has agreed to investigate.

Chingford and Woodford Green MP Mr Duncan Smith - Mrs Moody's local MP - said: "The procedures applied to Mr Leahy were appalling. The Care Quality Commission should launch a full inquiry." When Mrs Moody resigned in July 2009, Spire Healthcare, which owns Roding, admitted there had been a "collective organizational failure" in training. She said: "Some of these ac-tivities constitute gross negligence."

Mr Leahy's daughter Andrea, 34, said: "No one wants to do anything. We want to know the truth." The cause of Mr Leahy's cardiac arrest is impossible to know for sure. It is not known what his potassium blood level was at his death. Spire said he received appropriate doses and there is no evidence to link potassium levels to his cardiac arrest.

A Spire Healthcare spokesman strongly denied all the allegations and said the hospital always acts in the best interests of patients.

He added: "Roding Hospital maintains very high standards of care and invests heavily in training and development."