Australian radio pranksters 'posed as Queen and Charles to speak to Duchess of Cambridge's nurse'

- Hospital forced to apologise after nurse's phone blunder- Two radio presenters reached nurse on Kate's ward in late night prank call- William made no comment as he arrived at hospital today
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Ross Lydall @RossLydall8 December 2012

The hospital treating the Duchess of Cambridge for acute morning sickness was forced to apologise today after passing on details about her condition to radio show pranksters.

The private King Edward VII confirmed that its staff had been duped by two Australian presenters pretending to be the Queen and Prince Charles.

A nurse gave Mel Greig and Michael Christian of Sydney-based 2Day FM a four-minute update on Kate’s condition after a receptionist put their late-night phone call through to her ward.

The hospital today said in a statement that it “deeply regrets this incident”.

Chief executive John Lofthouse said: “This was a foolish prank call that we all deplore. We take patient confidentiality extremely seriously and we are now reviewing our telephone protocols.”

St James’s Palace refused to comment but the prank is certain to infuriate Prince William, who closely guards his wife’s privacy and took legal action after paparazzi pictures of her sunbathing topless in France were published in September.

William arrived back at the hospital at about 12.15pm today but made no comment as he headed quickly into the building to rejoin his wife, who is receiving treatment for a third day.

The prank is the most notorious since the Queen was fooled by Canadian DJ Pierre Brassard, who posed as the then Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien and asked her to record a speech in support of Canadian unity ahead of the 1995 Quebec referendum.

The hospital is favoured by the royals because they believe it guarantees their privacy and treated Prince Philip this year for a bladder infection. But its staff were taken in by the radio presenters despite their scarcely believable impressions, which included a “corgi” barking in the background.

Greig, barely disguising her Australian accent as she pretended to be the Queen, asked when she and Charles could visit her “grand daughter”.

After being told they are being put through an almost incredulous Christian, impersonating Prince Charles said: "If this has worked it is the easiest prank call we have ever made. Your accent sucked by the way, I just want you to know."

Greig than asked the unidentified nurse: ‘I’m just after my granddaughter Kate. I want to see how her little tummy bug is going?’

She replied: ‘She’s sleeping at the moment and she has had an uneventful night. And sleep is good for her. She's been given some fluids."

But her comment also included several more detailed medical references before adding: "She's stable at the moment.'

As the pair got bolder Greig went to more extreme limits saying: ’I’ll just feed my little corgis then. When is a good time to come and visit her, because I’m the Queen and I need a lift down there?’

And while in the background Christian posing as Prince Charles called "Mummy, mummy", she asked: "Charles! When can you take me to the hospital, Charles?’

The conversation then turned to Prince William, who spent about six hours with the duchess , who had departed earlier. Christian, as Charles, asked: "Lovely, but are they all ok? Everything is alright?"

The nurse then unwittingly revealed more personal details as Christian joked: "Of course, it’s hardly the palace is it?"

Greig then began winding up the conversation: "It’s nothing like the palace, is it Charles? When are you going to walk those bloody corgis?"

To which Christian replied: "Mumsy, I’ll go and take the dogs outside"

With Greig then signing off: "I need to go visit Kate in the morning. My dear, thank you so much".

Today Christian told the Standard that he was “completely shocked” to have been put through to the nurse by the hospital receptionist.

He said it was the duo’s first prank call and added: “You can hear the panic in the nurse’s voice. It couldn’t have gone any better. Thought we’d get hung up on.” A spokeswoman for the radio station said it was pre-recorded and approved by lawyers before being broadcast. “There was no malice behind it,” she said.

“We were trying to keep it in Australia. We didn’t want for it to become a big deal. The guys didn’t really push for any specific [medical] information —they were very light-hearted.”

She added: “It was entirely legitimate. We ran it through our legal team before we put it on air. The hosts were as surprised as anybody that they got some sort of response and information.

“They were not trying to dig for information. They were just having a bit of a joke.”

In a statement this afternoon, the radio station said: “2Day FM sincerely apologises for any inconvenience caused by the enquiry to Kate’s hospital, the radio segment was done with light-hearted intentions, we wish Kate and her family all the best and we're glad to hear she's doing well.”

Presenters Mel Greig and Michael Christian said: “We were very surprised that our call was put through, we thought we'd be hung up on as soon as they heard our terrible accents. We’re very sorry if we’ve caused any issues and we’re glad to hear that Kate is doing well."

In a pre-recorded interview released by the hospital its chief executive said they were considering whether to take any action against the radio station.

Mr John Lofthouse said: "I've received advice that what the Australian broadcasters did may well have broken the law. On the other hand they've apologised for it so we're going to have a long and careful think about what, if anything, we do."

He said there was no chance the Duchess could have received the call, adding: "Technically I think this was a breach of patient confidentiality, which I very much regret. Having said that the information which was inadvertently revealed is already in the public domain.

"I think this whole thing is pretty deplorable, our nurses are caring, professional people trained to look after patients, not to cope with journalistic trickery of this sort."

Mr Lofthouse said that "regrettably" the procedures and policies they have in place to stop incidents like the hoax call happening did not work.

He explained that normally a high profile patient, like the Duchess, would have a secure telephone in their room and "no one has access to that number unless they have good reason to do so".

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