A HOSPITAL'S neglect contributed to the controversial TB death of a 75-year-old patient, whose wife said she found ants in his bed, a coroner ruled yesterday.

Retired publican Joseph Hale, pictured, who ran the Carpenter's Arms, in Brynithel, with his wife, Gladys, until 1989, died on January 20, 1999, at Guy's Hospital in Southwark.

He was misdiagnosed with cancer, the inquest heard.

Ex-miner Mr Hale, born in Blaina, moved to Abbey Street, Southwark, south London, was admitted to the teaching hospital due to his chronic obstructive airways disease in November 1998.

Lung cancer was diagnosed - but the inquest heard that microbiologists knew from January 6, 1999, that Mr Hale had TB. That information was not passed on to doctors, who continued treating him as a terminal patient, administering large amounts of pain-killing morphine in his final days.

Southwark deputy coroner Adela Williams, recording a verdict of natural causes, said: "A plain opportunity to treat this eminently treatable condition was missed by the hospital and there is no escaping the conclusion Mr Hale's death was contributed to by the neglect of the hospital."

Yesterday, Dr Norman Johnson, of Guy's Hospital, admitted morphine painkillers were unsuitable for a patient already struggling to breathe with TB because opiate drugs depress breathing.

He added Mr Hale would almost certainly have survived if treated for TB instead of lung cancer from December 1998, and if treated from January - when microbiologists discovered the TB in tests - the doctor said: "It's still likely on the balance of probability."

Dr Johnson criticised the 90mgm of morphine Mr Hale received two days before he died. "He did not have lung cancer. He had an infectious disease and the amount of opiates in this case are inappropriate."

Histopathologist Dr Andrew Nicholson said yesterday Mr Hale's mining background and potential dust-related lung disorder meant TB was up to 20 times more likely.

"The fact he had this dust on the lung pre-disposed him to this infection," he said. He gave the cause of death as tuberculosis bronchial pneumonia.

Several months after Mrs Hale made a formal complaint to the hospital, demanding an investigation, she was told her husband's medical records were missing, the inquest heard.

The deputy coroner agreed with Mrs Hale that the disappearance of her husband's medical notes made investigations even more difficult.

She added: "It is very unsatisfactory when a patient dies of a potentially treatable condition."