A widow accused hospital bosses of shortening her husband’s life yesterday, asking why an urgent referral for his suspected cancer took three weeks.

John Foster, 69, of Bricket Wood, died of pancreatic cancer on April 24 this year, just three days after arriving at London’s Royal Free Hospital.

Hatfield Coroner’s Court heard how the former BT manager, who had twice survived bladder cancer, visited his GP on March 25 displaying symptoms associated with the disease and was referred immediately to Watford General Hospital.

Surgeons there, the court was told, suspected a pancreatic tumour and referred Mr Foster to London’s Royal Free Hospital on April 1 as “a good candidate for surgery.”

Before that appointment, however, he became seriously ill and finally collapsed outside a Watford supermarket on April 16, when he coughed up a large amount of blood.

The court heard that life-saving surgery was carried out at Watford General Hospital to treat massive internal bleeding before an emergency referral to the Royal Free – a specialist cancer unit – was again requested.

He was not transferred there until April 21.

Mr Foster’s widow Margaret asked why this process had taken so long, arguing that, had her husband been seen sooner, he “would still be alive today.”

She added: “I don’t know why the Royal Free have left it 21 days to see a man that another hospital is asking them to see urgently. I feel that my husband would be here today if they had responded properly.”

A hospital pathologist, however, explained that, given the aggressive and advanced nature of the disease, Mr Foster would probably only have lived another “three to six months” regardless of the treatment he received.

Mrs Foster replied: “It’s not just about a few months, it’s about time with someone we loved.”

Coroner Edward Thomas, who recorded a verdict of death by natural causes, was told by another witness – a Watford-based consultant – that pancreatic cancer was “the worse type of cancer” because, by the time its symptoms appear the disease has often progressed too far for effective treatment to be considered.