A CARNOUSTIE woman, whose husband died in Ninewells Hospital, Dundee, at the end of July was shocked and upset on Monday when she received a letter from NHS Tayside inviting him to attend for a heart scan next month.

The woman, who did not wish to be named, said, “I came home after spending a few days in London and, as expected, there was an appointment card waiting for me in relation to an orthopaedic appointment.

“When I saw the second letter addressed to my late husband, however, I was more than a little upset and when I opened it and saw it was an appointment for a myocardial scan in January, I really didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

“What makes the whole thing even worse is that I have already had reason to write to NHS Tayside when our family doctor was not told about my husband’s death until almost two months after he passed away.

“My husband had been ill for some time and was taken into Ninewells in June after suffering a minor heart attack.

“He was allowed home but on July 25 he was admitted as a emergency case and, sadly, died the following day.

“Some considerable time later I had cause to visit our family doctor and I was very surprised to discover that the GP practice hadn’t been told about my husband’s death, which I thought would have happened as a matter of course.

“The doctor was, understandably, very embarrassed to hear about my husband passing away from me rather than from the health service.

“The doctor wasn’t formally notified until September 15 and I wrote to NHS Tayside to express my concern.

“I received a reply on September 20 in which they apologised for the delay in informing the family doctor and said there had been some sort of problem with the computer records being updated. I thought that would have been an end to it but receiving an appointment card for my late husband has just really annoyed me.

“The letter said they wanted my husband to come in so they could check how the walls of his heart were doing, which is a bit pointless as he has been dead for more than four months. I phoned to cancel the appointment and explained the situation to the lady who took my call, who was very upset and apologetic, but it just seems so unreal that something like this can happen.”

An NHS Tayside spokes-man said, “We are extremely sorry for this mistake and understand how upsetting this must have been. This has clearly been an error in our procedures and we can only apologise for any distress caused to this lady.”