A miscommunication between staff meant a 103-year-old Whipps Cross Hospital patient was accidentally left without food for his final two days, an inquest heard.

Veteran Norman Hubble died at the hospital in Leytonstone on December 26, 2019, from a lung infection while recovering from surgery for a broken hip, a hearing on September 9 at the Adult College of Barking and Dagenham was told.

The court heard how, after his third day in hospital, Norman's doctor decided he should only be fed under supervision due to a long-term throat problem that meant he struggled to eat.

However, the inquest was told a nurse misread his patient notes and he was not fed at all.

In a witness statement read out to the court, Norman’s wife Yvonne said that, on his final day, he told her: “If I don’t have a cup of tea and a biscuit, I will die.”

She wrote: “My husband was let down in his life by the lack of care and urgency given to him.”

Coroner Graeme Irvine concluded the failure to feed Norman was a “significant error” that made his final days worse but not a direct cause of his death.

Whipps Cross, which is run by Barts Health NHS Trust, mostly serves residents from Waltham Forest, Redbridge and Epping Forest.

The hospital’s senior nurse Rahul Luka apologised to Norman’s family for the “basic things which were done wrong” and assured them Whipps Cross had “taken lessons” from it.

Mr Irvine concluded: “One can’t imagine how it must be during the seasonal period to be recovering from a broken hip when one is 103 but that is made even worse when you can’t even have sustenance.

“It seems to me that nurses had a cursive look at the notes, saw the words ‘nil by mouth’ and followed that instruction.

“What is clear is that this is a gentleman of his generation: he was stoic, independent and uncomplaining.

“It is very rare that I deal with a case of a man who made it to 103 and saw active service.”

He recorded the death as accidental, rather than natural causes, due to his view that Norman’s illness would not have happened if he had not fallen at home.