A grieving man was today picketing a hospital in a bid to embarrass its bosses into apologising for the way his dying wife was cared for.

Kathleen Elliott could eat nothing but dry bread and painkillers - even for her Christmas dinner - while she waited months to find out what was wrong with her.

She was not admitted to hospital, even after being rushed into casualty with agonising stomach pain.

Doctors at Bradford Royal Infirmary finally found a stomach tumour, four months after she was first examined.

An operation was carried out, but she died six months later, aged 57.

Now husband Michael Elliott feels the delays in diagnosis meant his wife suffered unnecessary agony. And an independent panel, set up to review the case, has recommended nine ways for the hospital to tighten up procedures.

Bradford Hospitals Trust, which runs the BRI, says it is now considering the recommendations.

But Mr Elliott, who was married for 22 years, is still angry because the hospital has never apologised.

And today he stepped up his protest by condemning the doctors responsible for his wife's care in leaflets handed out in the street outside BRI.

"I am not interested in trying to seek compensation: I'm not interested in money," Mr Elliott said. "The hospital has said it will address the communications problem and I am pleased about that, because that will help other patients.

"I just want them to say they're sorry. Handing out the leaflets is something I feel I have to do." The 56 year old joiner, who lives near Thornton, added: "Kath was a lovely woman who held the NHS in great esteem and wouldn't say a word against them: I feel they let her down."

The independent review panel report concluded: "Overall it was felt that the standard of care that Mrs Elliott received was very high, with the exception of communication difficulties."

But it added: "Whilst an earlier diagnosis of cancer would not have altered the final sad outcome, it would have placed less strain upon Mr and Mrs Elliott. It remains regrettable that Mrs Elliott should have been in acute pain for so long, and that little emphasis was put on her pain management."

Mrs Elliott was first seen by a specialist in September 1998 and had an endoscopy test (where a miniature camera is passed down into the stomach) two months later, which drew a blank.

The following week her pain was so intense she went to the hospital's accident and emergency department - but was sent home in a taxi, in her nightdress, after further tests.

After this she was no longer able to eat anything but bread and co-codamol painkillers. But although Mr Elliott contacted the hospital to plead for an earlier appointment, she had to wait until January before she saw her doctor again and was finally diagnosed. By then the tumour was large and had invaded her liver. She had an operation, but was gravely ill by this stage and died six months later after a brave battle.

The independent report into her case was critical of some aspects of her care, including:

failure to carry out blood tests

failure by casualty staff to notify her consultant of the deterioration of her condition

failure of one doctor to take enough notice of her symptoms, which should have pointed to cancer of the stomach

John Damman, director of corporate affairs at the Bradford Hospitals Trust, said: "Now we have got the report from the Independent Review Panel, we will be looking at the detail and considering how we respond to the recommendations that were made. The recommendations aren't binding, but we would be foolish not to pick them up.