Surely I am not the only one who cannot fathom the tragic outcome of the “prank” telephone call by two Australian DJs to the hospital where the Duchess of Cambridge was staying and what transpired thereafter. For who knows the true state of mind of the nurse in taking such a dramatic and difficult decision to comprehend her action as a result of being duped?

However, there are two outstanding issues that remain and have not yet been discussed.

One: why is no mention made of the nurse – who was also deceived – who actually provided the sensitive and privileged medical information on the duchess’s current condition, since all the nurse who took her own life did was to pass on the caller to her, thinking it was the Queen?

Two, and this is more crucial: why hasn’t anyone questioned the hospital of choice procedures and processes to enable the confirmation and substantiate the identity of telephone callers who are enquiring about patients’ medical condition, especially of a royal patient?

Irrespective of who they claim to be, there should be security codes in place to corroborate the caller’s identity – specifically when royals are involved. These may take many forms (a specific word or phrase for identification purposes, for example). Would the hospital have simply given any medical information out to any other caller or does it only provide it when thinking it is the Queen who is inquiring?

The dreadful consequences of these failings are too awful to dwell on and should never have resulted in loss of life but I would suggest that the true guilty parties in allowing this ungodly calamity to be perpetrated – and, yes, the DJs were obtuse and crass – have questions to answer.