A fit pensioner died from a flesh-eating bug just days after he was sent away from a casualty department with a box of painkillers, his family claims.

Now his daughter is demanding to know whether he could have been saved if he had been admitted straight away.

Albert Parrott, 79, who was treasurer of Girlington Conservative Club, was taken to the A&E department at Bradford Royal Infirmary by his daughter, Barbara Bell, because he was in agony with stomach pains.

He was in such pain he had to lean for support on the front counter.

But Mr Parrott's family claims it was three hours before he was examined by a doctor and sent for an X-ray because his groin was swollen.

They say he was told a doctor would see him as soon as he returned with his X-ray but it was an hour before he saw a locum GP, who then gave him a box of painkillers - five hours after he arrived at A& E on Easter Saturday, April 19 - and told him to see his own doctor three days later after the bank holiday weekend.

The GP examined him at his home in Pembroke Court, Girlington, and immediately rang for an ambulance.

Mr Parrott, a retired maintenance engineer, was admitted to BRI but his condition worsened by the Wednesday evening and he had to undergo a major five-hour operation.

He was put on a life support machine but it was switched off and he died shortly after midnight on Friday, April 25.

A post-mortem gave the cause of death as multi-organ failure due to Necrotising Fasciitis of his leg and abdomen.

Mrs Bell, 46, a factory worker, of Prince's Crescent, Bolton, said: "I honestly believe that if my dad had been admitted to hospital on Saturday, April 19, his condition would not have been life-threatening and he would still be with us today.

"Had he had the operation three days previously things might not have been so drastic.

"He was a fit, active man - even the hospital said he was very fit for his age.

"He's never been ill. He's worked all his life and asked for nothing.

"We don't know whether everything was done for him that could have been but we are left with the feeling that it wasn't."

Mrs Bell and her husband, office manager Geoff, 47, pictured with his wife, have written a letter of complaint to the Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, which has told them a full investigation will be carried out and promised to meet them to discuss their concerns.

But Mrs Bell said: "What happened on the Saturday was a shambles. We are not complaining about the staff, but the system is a farce.

"For someone of my father's age to sit there in agony for five hours for a box of painkillers is a disgrace.

"While we were there the parents of a baby who had been told by NHS Direct to go to BRI and get fluids for their child immediately had to wait four hours before they were seen.

"How many other families have had to go through the same traumatic ordeal that we have during the last month because of the way the A&E is being run? The fact that it was a Bank Holiday is no excuse."

Mr Bell said his father-in-law, who played rugby for Bradford Salem in the 1960s and also has a son and two grandchildren, had a lot to look forward to.

He had become a great-granddad in January and another was on the way. Two days before he died he was due to move in with his partner of six years, June Northrop, and next month Girlington Conservative Club was due to reopen after it was destroyed in the riots.

Mrs Bell said: "He had found true love again, after the death of his wife 17 years ago, and had everything to live for."

A spokesman for Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs BRI and St Luke's, said: "We have received an inquiry from the family into the circumstances surrounding his death and we extend our sympathy to the family at this sad time.

"We are now in the process of conducting a full investigation into the issues raised.

"Once the investigation has been completed we will then provide a full response to the family, detailing the findings of the investigation."