A London cancer patient died after he was denied a move to another hospital because no beds were available.
Michael Brennan, 80, needed emergency surgery after his condition deteriorated at Whittington Hospital, north London, having been diagnosed with lung cancer.
Doctors requested he be transferred to specialists at Westmoreland Street hospital, but there were no beds immediately available.
He died days later, a coroner recorded in a prevention of further deaths report.
Dr Richard Brittain, assistant coroner for Inner North London, urged the trust which runs Westmoreland Street hospital, University College London Hospitals NHS Trust (UCLH), to take action to prevent further deaths.
The NHS trust in charge of Westmoreland questioned the coroner's findings, saying beds were available and will be contacting the coroner.
In an initial statement to the Health Service Journal on Wednesday morning, UCLH apologised to the family and said it had noted the coroner's findings.
But a spokeswoman for UCLH has since said an internal investigation found there were beds available and suggested another hospital was involved.
She said: "We offer our sincere condolences to Mr Brennan's family and loved ones.
"Since responding to the coroner's findings we have investigated this case further.
"Our investigation has found we did have beds available at the time.
"We believe the comment that there were no beds available refers to another hospital trust which the Whittington contacted, and not UCLH's hospital at Westmoreland Street.
"We will be reporting our findings to the coroner."
According to the coroner's report, Mr Brennan, a smoker who had been diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, underwent a bronchoscopy to investigate why he had been coughing up blood since early 2016.
Doctors at Whittington Hospital discovered the lung cancer and tried to stem the bleeding from the lesion, but referred him to UCLH amid concerns over his condition.
A clinician at UCLH advised them that, as an interventional bronchoscopy could not be carried out immediately, Mr Brennan should be referred to heart surgeons at Westmoreland Street hospital if his condition deteriorated overnight.
When the team caring for the elderly man contacted the hospital that evening, they were told there were no beds available.
He was eventually admitted to UCLH intensive therapy unit but died a few days later on October 24 last year, Dr Brittain said.
The report, which was sent to UCLH chief executive Marcel Levi, said: "In my opinion there is a risk that future deaths will occur unless action is taken.
"I am concerned that this back-up plan relied on the availability of a bed at a satellite hospital, which was ultimately not available when it was required.”
