THE son of Betty Chadwick, who died after a ‘routine’ knee replacement at Burnley General Hospital in October, said he wished the Keogh report had been published before her death.

An inquest in April found key information about the Haslingden resident’s previous heart problems was missed in a pre-op assessment, which should have ruled her out for surgery.

Son Neil Chadwick, 44, said: “Hopefully now the problems at the hospitals can be sorted.

“I wish this investigation would have happened a year ago and then my mum might not have died. She should not have died and there must be other people who shouldn’t have died as well.”

One criticism made by Sir Bruce Keogh was the way in which East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust handled complaints, with the process described as ‘poor and lacking a compassionate approach’.

Neil said: “We have still not had an apology from the trust, so I’m not surprised at all to hear about the way they handle complaints. This just goes to prove that something has been going wrong.”

Neil and his siblings are still considering making a compensation claim against the trust.

Mrs Chadwick, 76, of Clarence Avenue, had a history of heart problems and the strain of the surgery at Burnley caused her to have a heart attack, an inquest heard.

An assessment in August last year could have flagged up the mum-of-five’s heart problems, and ruled her out for surgery, but coroner Michael Singleton said it had ‘failed to establish the severity of her heart disease’.

Mr Singleton was also unimpressed by an internal review of Mrs Chadwick’s case.

Despite raising concerns about her care, when Mrs Chadwick’s condition deteriorated sharply, the review reached the conclusion that she received a 'high standard of nursing and medical care'. Mr Singleton said in the inquest that he was ‘struggling’ with this finding.