Doctors failed to spot fatal illness bug

Eight doctors failed to diagnose a blood infection in a mother who later died, an inquest has heard.

Penny Campbell had two face-to-face appointments and six telephone consultations over four days of the a bank holiday weekend, but none of the doctors spotted that she was suffering from septicaemia following an injection for haemorrhoids. The doctors, most of whom worked for Camidoc, an out-of-hours GP service covering north and east London, variously told Ms Campbell, 41, that she was suffering from flu, a viral infection, the effects of food poisoning and colic.

When her condition deteriorated over Easter weekend last year, her partner took her to A&E at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel but she suffered multiple organ failure and died, five days after her first doctor's consultation.

Two of the doctors with Camidoc told the inquest, at Poplar coroner's court in east London, that they had not seen earlier notes on Ms Campbell, an associate editor for Time magazine, when they diagnosed her.

One said he was "not sure what the process was for combining notes so that doctors had an up-to-date file on each patient". He added: "That's a possible hiatus in the whole system."

The hearing continues.