A terminally ill patient has had to go without a phone line or television for weeks despite repeated requests from relatives to get it fixed.

Margaret Heritage, 69, was diagnosed with cancer just over a month ago after scans showed a tumour in her womb.

But since arriving at Hillingdon Hospital two weeks ago she has been unable to contact her daughter, Deana Schuite, or watch any programmes.

Her son-in-law Hanno Schuite, of Nine Stiles Close in New Denham, said: "For two weeks my mother-inlaw was secluded with no-one to talk to apart from the staff, who occasionally came in to check on her.

"It's upset the whole family very much that they would treat someone who is terminally ill like that."

He explained how he called the hospital's customer care line virtually every day, and they kept saying they would do something about it, but after a week they told him they could not help him because the technician was on holiday.

Mr Schuite said: "So I asked, if the technician is on holiday, does it mean the patients have to suffer? It just seems as if they couldn't care less.

"I then told them if they didn't get the phone and TV fixed I would contact the papers on Friday, and it was only then that I heard back from them.

"But by then I was so fed up I brought a TV in for Margaret myself."

A spokesperson for Hillingdon Hospital said: "We are very sorry Mrs Heritage was without a TV and phone line for two weeks.

"However, the Trust's TV and phone line service is run by an independent company, and any calls to the customer care line are handled by the company externally.

"The Trust endeavours to make a patient's stay in hospital as comfortable as possible and will be investigating the issue with the independent supplier."