BEREAVED son Andrew Wild has shamed a bungling hospital into stopping medical appointments being sent to his dead father – by taking his ashes to the latest consultation.

Since retired company director Peter Wild, aged 73, died in 2007, more than 20 letters have arrived at his Stone home asking him to attend kidney clinics at Staffordshire's two main hospitals.

The mail has continued despite apologies from staff and assurances it would not happen again.

Now Andrew is so fed up telling clerks to remove his father's details from their records, he has taken his remains in an urn to yesterday's appointment at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire.

He also carried a placard calling the error "a shambles" and pointing out to passers-by why he was making the gesture.

The property developer, aged 44, also from Stone, said: "I know it is morbid but I could not think of what else to do.

"When my turn in the clinic came round I went into the consultant who asked me how I was feeling. I said I was OK then produced my dad's ashes and asked, 'But what can you do for him?'

"He was gob-smacked and explained he had not sent out the letters. I replied that my argument was with the management not with the doctors or nurses.

"I just hope this finally does the trick of stopping these extremely insensitive appointment letters.

"We are all being pretty stoic about it but I dread to think how devastating it would be if it was some frail old widow who had just lost her husband.

"The NHS is supposed to be cash-strapped but not only is this wasting money in postage and stationery, it is also depriving living patients of an appointment."

Grandfather Mr Wild, whose company was involved in the pottery industry, had been treated at both the renal department of the Hartshill complex and its satellite unit at Stafford General Hospital, where he died.

One letter also came from Walsall Hospital where he had a cataract operation, but no more arrived once the family had pointed out the mistake. They have kept coming thick and fast, however, from the Hartshill complex and Staffordshire Hospital.

Cradling the ashes draped in a red velvet cover at the outpatients department entrance, Andrew added: "I have told them time after time he has died and they have always apologised and promised to remove his records.

"But then another letter arrives a few weeks later. It's just ridiculous."

Afterwards a meeting was organised with a matron who told him an investigation would be launched to find what was going wrong.

A trust spokesman said: "Our staff would like to apologise unreservedly to Mr Wild for the distress this administration error has caused him.

"He met with staff at the hospital yesterday, and as a result we will now begin an investigation and will inform Mr Wild of the outcome once it is complete."