NHS care pleas after peer's death

Concerns about the NHS care of a disabled hereditary peer who died in a Berkshire hospital are to be referred to the Health Secretary. Crossbencher Baroness Darcy de Knayth, 69, who was wheelchair-bound after a car accident, died at Wexham Park Hospital in Slough on Saturday.

Shadow Commons leader Theresa May raised concerns about her care. In exchanges in parliament, Commons Leader Harriet Harman pledged to refer the case to Alan Johnson.

Ms May said: "Last Friday my constituent, Baroness Darcy, who was disabled from spinal injuries and was a hard-working and much-respected crossbench peer, was taken ill. On arrival at her local acute hospital, Wexham Park, they didn't even have the right sort of bed for someone with her disabilities. On Sunday morning she died."

Ms Harman said Ms May had raised serious concerns and she would refer them to Health Secretary Alan Johnson.

In the Lords on Monday, Spinal Injuries Association president, Baroness Masham of Ilton, said the hospital "was not equipped to deal with a seriously ill person with spinal injuries". "She had been treated for years at the National Spinal Unit at Stoke Mandeville Hospital who tragically would not admit her, for some reason yet to be explained. I will be asking the government to review the very inadequate facilities for the 6,000 people living with the results of spinal injuries, especially in the south of England."