NHS boss praised scandal hit hospitals during the height of care debacle, letter shows It is thought the visit was on October 27 and was followed by a letter of congratulation to the chief executive. It noted improvements on hitting targets for waiting times in casualty, cancer treatment, surgery and outpatients. Yet that month an elderly woman who had suffered a stroke was sent home by a casualty doctor who misdiagnosed her as having a urine infection. She fell into a coma two days later and died. Julie Bailey, who set up the campaign group Cure the NHS after her mother died at the trust, said: "He should have been asking questions of the trust's chief executive, not congratulating him. The care was just disastrous from 2004 and it became a long-standing problem. He is ultimately responsible. How can he carry on in his job after all this? Earlier this month Sir David was implicated in another scandal when it emerged he had ignored warnings about a hospital trust where 670 patients may have died needlessly. Gary Walker and David Bowles, the former chief executive and chairman of United Lincolnshire Hospitals, say they wrote to the chief executive in 2009 but were ignored. Mr Walker was later sacked and given a £500,000 pay-off with a gagging clause to keep silent. The trust is being investigated by the NHS for having one of the highest death rates in the country.