Penny Campbell became ill and died over the course of a bank holiday weekend despite the attention of eight doctors. Her grieving partner believes that she would still be alive if the NHS out-of-hours system worked properly.

Angus MacKinnon said that Ms Campbell, 41, had been a victim of the Government’s approach to healthcare reform. She died from blood poisoning at the Royal London Hospital, East London, after she became infected during an operation for haemorrhoids. Her condition would have been easy to treat if caught in time, but she fell ill over the Easter weekend in 2005, while her GP was on holiday.

Eight doctors from Camidoc, a private company contracted to provide out-of-hours cover, misdiagnosed her condition because they did not have access to notes made by her GP or by each other. An inquest ruled in October that they had contributed to her death.

Mr MacKinnon, who intends to sue Camidoc, said: “I’m fairly confident that if Penny had been seen by a doctor from her own surgery, then you would not have had a situation where you can be seen by eight doctors, none of whom could diagnose correctly.”

He has been told by a government source that the policy for providing out-of-hours cover was not discussed in Cabinet.

“The reform was introduced without any kind of pilot scheme, which is absurd.” He said that the coroner wrote to Patricia Hewitt, the Health Secretary, after the inquest to warn her that the case raised national issues. “Five months later I am still waiting for a letter from her. I think that is shocking.”

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