Neglect contributed to the death of a Mill Hill woman at Barnet Hospital, a coroner has ruled.

Claire Packer, of Bray Road, was 49 when she died on July 31, 2005, after contracting the superbug Clostridium difficile while in hospital recovering from a hip operation.

In his verdict on April 11, Hornsey deputy coroner Andrew Walker highlighted the hospital's failure to ensure Ms Packer was attended daily by a physician and criticised delays in getting back test results.

Ms Packer, an administrator in the director's office at the Victoria and Albert Museum, had fractured her femur in April 2005 after falling down steps in her garden. She needed the surgery on July 14 because an earlier operation to put metalwork in her leg had failed.

After her surgery, Ms Packer became ill with diarrhoea, but a stool sample taken on July 21 was not tested until five days later, despite requests for test results made by medical staff on July 22.

Mr Walker told Hornsey Coroners Court: "An opportunity was lost to begin treatment for what turned out to be a serious infection with Clostridium difficile."

He said although it would have been best practice for someone in Ms Packer's medical condition to have been attended by a member of the physician's team daily, this did not happen from July 23 to 27.

Mr Walker concluded: "Ms Packer died from a complication of a necessary surgical procedure contributed to by neglect."

The causes of death were specified as E-Coli endotoxin (septic) shock, Clostridial toxin antibiotic-related colitis, and malnutrition as a result of anorexia nervosa, from which Ms Packer had periodically suffered for 20 years.

Ms Packer's mother, Sheila Abrahams, 73, from Mill Hill, said: "If the doctors had made the effort to go and see her, if they had recognised her symptoms, if they had requested and chased her test results, she would probably be alive today. The family is devastated at the catalogue of events that led to this tragic, unnecessary death. I don't think we will ever make sense of what happened. She suffered and she died and it shouldn't have happened."

A spokesman for Barnet and Chase Farm Hospitals NHS Trust said: "The trust would like to offer Ms Packer's family its sincerest condolences. It was fully cooperative with the coroner during his investigation and information was provided to the court to assist with his inquiry.

"The trust is undertaking an internal investigation to take on board the comments made by the coroner, and will take any further action to ensure lessons are learned from this case."