Whittington hospital says sorry

The Whittington Hospital was today forced into an embarrassing climbdown over its treatment of two elderly patients in Accident and Emergency.

It apologised for the way it treated the elderly patients at the centre of this week's political storm. It also accepted official report which said there were "major concerns" over long waits in the hospital's A&E and the treatment of older patients.

Relatives of Rose Addis and Sidney Hockley welcomed the apologies, which came after four days of ferocious denials of their complaints from the hospital and bitter smears against the patients.

Trevor Campbell Davis, chief executive of the Whittington, first apologised to Mrs Addis, 94, - the woman who sparked the row - after the trust's most senior doctor implied she was racist. Mr Campbell Davis said: "I would not want the hospital ever to give the impression that there was any racist overtone that might be seen as a slur on the family.?

The racism slur came when the hospital?s medical director, Professor James Malone-Lee, appeared on BBC?s Newsnight and implied Mrs Addis had refused to allow ethnic minority nurses to treat her.

He said ?She was absolutely emphatic that she would not accept the kind of personal care from the sort of nurses working in the department.?

Mrs Addis?s grandson, Jason Gold, demanded a retraction before meeting bosses and calling a ceasefire on the war of words. He said: ?We had a meeting with the hospital which was very conciliatory and constructive. We said we would not agree to a second meeting until there was a retraction and an apology for this accusation of racism.

?We have got that now, but ultimately we want an acknowledgement that the care my grandmother received during those three days in casualty was not appropriate.?

The hospital has also apologised to the family of Sidney Hockley, who spent five days in the A&E department. and was also left unwashed and in a ?horrendous? state.

His niece, Lesley Hockley said that she had received a personal apology from managers about their uncle?s treatment. The parents of James Scott-Faulkner, 13, the third patient caught up in the scandal, are thought to be meeting hospital bosses today.

The Whittington?s Director of Nursing Deborah also admitted that the hospital was trying to put right a series of problems. During a 90-minute meeting with the Evening Standard on Tuesday to discuss the issue, bosses denied that the department had failed in its care of Mrs Addis or had any problems with overcrowding.

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