Politics

MP calls for cruise doctor crackdown after father-in-law's Barbados death


An MP whose father-in-law died after falling ill on a cruise will this week call for better checks on local doctors in foreign ports.

Gordon Spencer, 86, and wife Jackie set sail on a four-month world voyage that would take in their “last two bucket list destinations” – India’s Taj Mahal and seeing the famous cherry blossoms in Japan and.

But five weeks after their on January 5 departure he was dead, after what his family believe was a catalogue of failures at a clinic in Barbados.

His case will be highlighted on Thursday by Gordon’s son-in-law, Conservative backbencher Alec Shelbrooke, who will demand a legal shake-up to boost the vetting of doctors in foreign ports visited by cruise liners.

Speaking of his “much-cherished father-in-law”, Mr Shelbrooke is expected to tell a Commons adjournment debate how Gordon fell ill – triggering a chain of events which, the family believes, led to his unnecessary death.

Alec Shelbrooke Conservative MP

 

The cruise ship’s on-board doctor diagnosed double pneumonia and high blood pressure , beginning treatment with antibiotics.

However, when Gordon was taken off the boat in Barbados, a port official sent him to a specialist heart clinic rather than a general hospital.

Mr Shelbrooke will claim the ship’s doctor’s notes, which were given to the clinic, “clearly stated Gordon had not had a heart attack”.

However, later medical files from the clinic – which the Mirror is not naming for legal reasons – claim he was admitted with double pneumonia and a heart attack, the MP will say.

An operation was carried out six days after he arrived, and the family say Gordon’s conditioned quickly worsened.

They believe he would have received better and more appropriate treatment at the main hospital nearby.

“With a state-of-the-art hospital less than half a mile away in Bridgetown, it is difficult to understand how this clinic was deemed appropriate for offering any level of suitable health care for a critically-ill patient with double pneumonia,” Mr Shelbrooke is expected to add.

Cruise boat, entertainment ship, the Aegan sea, blue sea water, ocean, close up

 

The family forked out $200,000 (£158,000) for medical bills and Gordon’s repatriation to the UK.

He died on February 13 in Leeds, “leaving behind a very devastated and traumatised family”.

Mr Shelbrooke wants a legal overhaul that would introduce a duty of care on port agents to ensure they carry out “due diligence on the list of medical facilities and practitioners used for passengers disembarked for medical reason at their ports”.

Gordon’s daughter Susan – Mr Shelbrooke’s wife – said: “My dad was a generous, loving, quick-witted man who worked hard his entire life.

“His last major holiday was a world cruise to see the Taj Mahal – a final bucket list destination.

“But due to the poor care he received in Barbados we instead laid his ashes there.

“My dad was a kind man that cared greatly about other people’s welfare.

“I know that highlighting what happened to him is a fitting tribute to a man who would have wanted to do everything he could to stop other people suffering the same fate.”

Read More

Latest UK politics news





READ SOURCE

Leave a Reply

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this site, you accept our use of cookies.