A Nurse who claims she watched her terminally-ill father die a slow death without proper nursing care said today she had to beg for him to be looked after.

By the time York man Herbert McMillan died, Evelyn Nicholls says she had seen him suffer for seven months.

Evelyn, a nurse of 30 years' experience, today pleaded for a complete overhaul of the funding of care for the terminally ill, saying the misery of Mr McMillan, from Stockton-on-the-Forest, had exposed a cash crisis in the service. Her plea came after she had addressed hundreds of colleagues at the Royal College of Nursing Conference in Harrogate.

In a speech to delegates yesterday, she said: "The nursing care that my father received was practically zilch.

"This should never happen in this day and age. He cried out but no one listened. He did not receive the care he deserved."

Breaking down as her speech drew to a close, Evelyn left the podium in tears.

Mr McMillan, who was 77, died on April 26 this year, after being diagnosed with terminal bowel cancer last September.

Mrs Nicholls, from Lincoln, told the conference that in the months of his illness he was not visited at his home by GPs, claiming that doctors instead made telephone check-ups.

She also believes the lack of NHS funding for the terminally ill meant he was not given the 24-hour care he needed. Mrs Nicholls said she and her brother, David McMillan, from Goole, had to make regular trips to York to care for him, as he moved from York District Hospital to St Leonard's Hospice and various care homes.

She said the only help they received on a consistent basis came from Macmillan Cancer Relief and hospice staff.

Mrs Nicholls told the Evening Press: "My brother and I should not have had to fight every step of the way, to beg and beg and beg, to get the care our dad needed. The country needs not just guidelines on care but criteria that are set solidly. We need to lobby the Government for that as soon as possible."

Mrs Nicholl's complaint is now with North Yorkshire Health Authority.

A spokesman for the authority said: "We will acknowledge the family's letter very shortly. It will then be a case of substantiating the facts of the matter. Then a full reply will be sent to the family."

Updated: 11:17 Tuesday, May 22, 2001