Susan Osborn loved and worked for the National Health Service.

But, in the final stages of her rare illness, she was on the receiving end of some terrible treatment, as Evening Press reporter Phillip Chapman exclusively reveals.

FAILINGS of the NHS have been revealed by the treatment of one of its own executives - a young York woman who died earlier this month. The grieving family of Susan Osborn has outlined negative aspects of her time in London hospitals - problems they want remedying for future patients as a lasting memorial to her.

The 36-year-old from Wigginton died after a 22-year fight with Lupus, a little-known auto-immune condition which attacks internal organs and skin.

Susan was described by her husband Thomas as "an extraordinary patient" because of her dual role as an associate director with Lambeth Southwark and Lewisham NHS Health Trust, and a person on the receiving end of unacceptable mistakes and delays.

A lost brain scan, arduous transfers between sites, and a long wait on a stretcher bed are among a catalogue of frustrating events listed by Thomas and Susan's brother Philip.

But they - and Susan's parents Val and Gordon - don't want to damn the NHS outright or blame individuals. They simply want Susan's experience to highlight flaws in the system.

Val has even written to the Prime Minister in a bid to get things changed.

Philip says: "Sue has managed to illustrate some of the failings of the NHS. The irony of the NHS is that it saved her life many times, but it also treated her badly many times.

"She never complained and wouldn't want the NHS to be condemned. In fact Susan's links with the service prompted 120 colleagues to observe a minute's silence at the LSL health authority after she died."

With Lupus internal organs are turned upon by the body's own defences because cells and tissue are seen as foreign bodies. So Susan often needed surgery for internal bleeding, as well as dialysis after her kidneys failed.

Central to Susan's problems was the relocation of an intensive care unit (ICU) from Guy's to St Thomas' Hospital last year.

This meant Susan's renal and surgical treatment was split after ten years under one roof.

The renal treatment remained at Guy's, but if she suddenly needed emergency surgery and ICU care she had to go through a three to four-hour ordeal - including sedation and having a tube put down her throat to ensure constant breathing during an intensive care ambulance-ride across part of London.

This compared with a previous 15-minute trip in a hospital bed in the same building.

Thomas says: "I remember Susan saying 'someone will die in between the hospitals'.

"After the split last year they had to get a whole team and a surgeon to come from St Thomas' while the year before they could move her a few yards in her bed."

But one-off incidents also became the norm. During one incident last February, Thomas says Susan spent eight hours on a stretcher bed after going into St Thomas' with abdominal pains.

He adds: "She eventually got taken to a surgical room, but later we talked about the irony of Tony Blair coming to open a modernised A&E department there the next day."

On May 1 - four days before Susan's death - a brain scan revealing cerebral bleeding was 'lost' after being sent to neural specialists by taxi.

In frustration, Thomas ended up hand-delivering a copy seven hours after experts at Kings College, London, should have received it.

He says: "By 10.30pm - seven hours after the original scan left Guy's - I asked for a copy and took it myself to Kings. Just 31 minutes later a neuro-specialist was looking at them and was on the phone to Guy's. They said an operation wouldn't help matters."

On her last night alive - May 4 - Susan was moved out of her high-dependency bed to the normal Ashley Cooper ward at Guy's.

By then she could do nothing unassisted. Thomas says: "They brought her out of a state-of-the-art bed and put her in a 1970s-type bed that was lashed together with string at one side."

Susan had become weakened and lost her fight against Lupus late the next day - contributory factors were bleeding on the brain and renal failure.

Thomas says: "Here was a woman who, in her professional capacity, was an advocate for patients, medical staff, carers and the hospital system.

"She had a great deal of respect for the people caring for her, but she also had a deeper understanding of the machinations of the system and the London sites being split. In this sense she was an extraordinary patient. The Government is listening and Susan's is the sort of case it needs to hear. The sad irony is that Susan was subjected to all this, considering the career she had."

A spokesman for Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital Trust said: "We would like to offer sincere condolences to the family of Susan Osborn. Guy's and St Thomas' are the same Trust and have recently reconfigured services. Guy's has become a centre for planned care and St Thomas' for acute and emergency care.

"This means we have been able to create single, merged departments and concentrate expertise and resources on one particular site.

"To gain these benefits this does mean that, unfortunately, some patients sometimes do have be transferred between sites. When this happens patients are stabilised at Guy's Hospital and escorted with full clinical team to St Thomas' Hospital.

"We have received a letter from Mrs Osborn's father and are investigating the issues raised and will respond directly to him."