Buckingham Palace officials are coming under fire for how they handled the Queen's recent admission to hospital, with one commentator calling it a "dangerous strategy" and another accusing aides of a "failed attempt" at a cover-up.
The revelation that Queen Elizabeth II had spent a night at King Edward VII's Hospital in London earlier this week, her first admission since 2013, came on Friday after an exclusive report by Britain's The Sun. Buckingham Palace subsequently released a statement saying the monarch went to the hospital on Thursday for "preliminary investigations" and returned to Windsor Castle on Friday.
But just hours before, Buckingham Palace had simply said she had accepted medical advice to rest and not tour Northern Ireland.
The affair has raised questions about whether the palace was upfront enough with the public about their head of state's condition and if media would have been informed if The Sun hadn't got the scoop.
Cited by the Daily Mail, royal commentator and former BBC journalist Peter Hunt said there had been a "failed attempt" to cover up the Queen's visit to hospital and that the media's faith in Buckingham Palace's communications team "will have been sorely tested".
The Daily Mail reports that while officials don't give constant updates on royal family members' health, media are usually told of hospital admissions. That's particularly important in the case of the Queen given her role and the implications were she to die.
"The Queen does have a right to a certain degree of privacy, but on the other hand she's head of state," said Joe Little, the managing editor of the Majesty magazine. "So does that entitle us to know exactly what ailments she may or may not have? It's a very difficult one to get the balance right for the satisfaction of everybody."
Sources of The Guardian say her admission was not announced for privacy reasons and she had only stayed overnight for "practical reasons", though what those were have not been disclosed.
Dickie Arbiter, a former press secretary to Queen Elizabeth II, told The Guardian it could have been handled differently. He suggested that officials could have released a statement once the Queen was back home at Windsor.
The Daily Mail editor-at-large Richard Kay wrote that while there are justifiable reasons not to give a running commentary of the Queen's movements, such as for security reasons, "not telling the whole story is a dangerous strategy".
"If the media - and therefore the public - cannot rely on the Royal Household to be straightforward, there will be increased concern about the Queen's health going forward."
BBC royal correspondent Nicholas Witchell said "rumour and misinformation always thrives in the absence" of accurate information and that while the public has been told the Queen is now in "good spirits", he believes "that's a phrase that's a little bit of a cliche now".
"We're told that she is back at Windsor Castle undertaking light duties. Well, we must hope we can place reliance on what the palace is telling us."
The royal standard, which is flown about Windsor Castle when the Queen is present, was not dropped overnight Wednesday, despite the Queen being in hospital. But a source told the Daily Mail that it was kept up as the castle was still her current residence.
