Health chiefs have apologised and paid a five-figure compensation sum to the family of a man who was abandoned at a hospital after suffering fatal head injuries.

Arnold Siddall, 47, from Failsworth, was taken to casualty after he fractured his skull during a row outside a bar.

But an inquest heard that rather than receiving the treatment that could have saved his life, he was left to wander around the grounds of the Royal Oldham Hospital for 12 hours before eventually being picked up by police. He suffered a fit in the back of a van.

He was taken back to the hospital but died two days later.

As the inquest into Mr Siddall’s death opened at Oldham County Court, the M.E.N. discovered bosses from Pennine Acute Trust apologised to Mr Siddall’s family and paid them compensation after they threatened legal action.

Mr Siddall, a welder, was pushed over and hit his head on the pavement after going to complain about noise at The Lock bar in Failsworth in

Paramedics took him to the hospital where he was seen by ambulance triage nurse Joanne Pendleton.

She told the inquest that she did not record that Mr Siddall had suffered a head injury on medical records, only that he seemed intoxicated.

Mr Siddall, who had been drinking earlier that evening, was marked as a priority 3 patient – to be seen within an hour.

But he told staff he wanted to go home and despite falling back into a wheelchair he had been put in, was able to walk out. Security staff told the inquest Mr Siddall was spotted at various points in the hospital grounds until 4.20 that afternoon.

Guards approached Mr Siddall, who had two brothers and four sisters, but thought he was drunk. One saw him fall to the ground with his head in his hands and another time noticed he had vomited but doctors were not told.

A spokesman for law firm Pannone said: “Although we were successful in obtaining the compensation that the law allows in such circumstances, no amount of money can recompense them for the loss of their brother.”

The man who pushed Mr Siddall, Paul Parry, then 25, was cleared of manslaughter at Manchester Crown Court in 2008.

Pennine Acute Trust declined to comment on the payout.