Cancer patients are being failed by the healthcare system according to a report carried out by senior members of the medical profession.

A report by the National Confidential Enquiry into Perioperative Deaths published on Tuesday revealed a catalogue of errors including poor record keeping and staff shortages.

The report, which studied the case histories of patients who died within 30 days of surgery found accident and emergency provisions for people with serious illnesses were less than satisfactory.

The report concluded that in many hospitals there was "unacceptable" medical record keeping, a lack of uniformity in cancer care and a shortage of staff capable of caring for increasingly sick and aged patients. It also confirmed that the postcode lottery persists with patients being treated in units and centres with very different caseloads and experience levels across the country.

"The real issue is that it is all very well for those who go through their GP in normal office hours but those who present themselves in the middle of the night at their local A and E department won't see the specialist surgeon. The staff on duty do not have access to the right facilities and information and end up having to perform greater levels of invasive surgery that isn't specific," said Chris Hargrave, chief executive of NCPOD.

Better note keeping could also be key to cutting the amount of money the NHS pays out in medical negligence claims.

"In the courts as soon as something is not there in the notes, the doctors cannot argue their case any further and the courts find in favour of the complainant," said Hargraves.

The charity also highlighted the continued shortage of high dependency units which are used for long term serious care of patients with illnesses such as cancer. The charity predicts that it will take until 2006 for 100 per cent of cases to get access to the units which have fully trained staff and are effectively the tier below intensive care units.

"It's now at 71 per cent and we still don't think that's good enough. We've been looking at this for 10 and although some progress has been made its been very slow," said Hargraves.

The organisation is a registered charity backed by the Royal Colleges and medical associations across the UK. It reviews clinical practice with the aim of identifying areas of medical practice where improvements can be made. The aim is to look at the quality of the delivery of care and not specifically the causation of death.

Its report will prove to be embarrassing for the government at a time when doubts have been raised about the improvements made since 1997. The debate over health was intensified by the chancellor's pre-Budget statement last week in which the prospect of high taxes was raised to pay for the NHS.

The findings by the charity highlights the challenge currently facing health ministers who will have to prove to the Treasury that massive improvements have been made to justify being given extra cash.

"We don't think it's all about cash. The proof of the pudding will be in a couple of years' time when we can see the effect of the large sums of money the hospitals have had. It's partly a question of where the money is going, of organisation and management procedures," said Hargraves.