Published: Friday, 13th February, 2009 9:01am

Doctor thought dying dad had indigestion - says report

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AN investigation into the death of a father-of-two who died two hours after being seen by a doctor has revealed that the GP did not think it was ‘necessary' to call an ambulance.

The probe by Berkshire East Primary Care Trust (PCT) into the sudden death of Shahbaz Iqbal found that the GP who examined the frail 50-year-old suffering from breathing problems and chest pains, thought he had indigestion.

A letter to his family said that the doctor at the out-of-hours surgery in Osborne Street, Slough, was unsure about his diagnosis and wanted him to go to A&E at Wexham Park Hospital, but did not call an ambulance.

Mr Iqbal, of Goodman Park, Slough, deteriorated rapidly and died two hours later.

The letter to his family reads: "(The doctor) did not feel completely assured in terms of this diagnosis. You will appreciate that there are times when a GP recognises that there are a number of possible diagnosis explanations in terms of a patient's symptoms. (The doctor) did not refuse to call an ambulance but did not believe it was necessary to do so."

His wife Gulshan, 49, who called for an independent investigation into NHS neglect, is now taking legal advice.

She said: "A qualified doctor should be able to tell the difference between a heart attack and indigestion. The reason why I wanted an ambulance was because paramedics would have monitored my husband from the start. But instead valuable time was wasted driving there ourselves and checking into A&E. Now I've been robbed of my husband."

Wexham Park Hospital, which also launched an internal investigation, said staff did ‘everything to resuscitate' Mr Iqbal.

But the family say there are discrepancies in the hospital's responses and will be writing to bosses again to obtain further details.

The hospital said it could not comment further due to data protection but the PCT was unavailable for comment.