American health care getting international coverage:

‘Missing’ British patient is found dead on stairs in US hospital

Mother-of-two Lynne Spalding had been admitted to the busy US health facility with an infection but vanished from her room on September 21.

The body was discovered yesterday on the rarely used stairwell by a worker.

‘It’s very concerning,’ a spokesman for San Francisco General Hospital said. ‘We’re distressed and don’t know what happened. It’s our top priority to find out.’

Ms Spalding – a tourism worker who lived in San Francisco after emigrating from Britain – was frail and thin and probably in a confused state after being given medication, friends said.

They had put up missing posters in the city with her photograph on it, following her disappearance.

Police, coroner and sheriff’s officials are investigating. David Perry, a spokesman for the 57-year-old’s family, said: ‘What is happening here today is very distressing.’

It took them over two weeks to find the body.

Think about that next time you need to go to the hospital.