HEALTH SERVICE KILLED MY DAD ... THEY PUT VIRUS PATIENTS FIRST

RETIRED shipyard plumber Stuart Cameron died on April 22 after his family had pleaded for weeks for him to be tested for cancer.

A scan in February found shadows on his right lung but a biopsy was cancelled as Covid-19 cases began to mount in March.

Mr Cameron, 78, of Clydebank, Dunbartonshire, was subsequently wrongly diagnosed with acid reflux and then a chest infection, and he deteriorated rapidly.

His son, also Stuart, said: ‘It incenses me to hear the Government saying it is looking at getting the NHS to restart the procedures they’d put on hold, like dealing with people with cancer.

‘Why did they stop in the first place? The authorities saw what was happening in Wuhan and Italy and Spain. They had weeks to organise themselves.

‘My dad was entitled to the same care as someone who’d caught the virus. But the Government and NHS decided to choose one over the other.’

Mr Cameron was finally diagnosed with cancer when his family threatened doctors with legal action if they did not take him into hospital for tests.

He died four days later from a heart attack as his son carried him upstairs for a shower. A post-mortem examination found the cancer had spread to his chest.

Mr Cameron Jnr − a health and safety officer from Glasgow − said: ‘He’d had lung cancer before but had recovered. He was physically fit and never smoked. If the NHS had acted when it should have, he would have been alive today. They killed him.

‘Somebody made the decision to stop treating cancer patients and they have to be held to account.’