Duke 'mending very well', Andrew says

The Duke of Edinburgh is “mending very well” as he recovers from a bladder infection, his son the Duke of York said today.

Philip, who was forced to miss some of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations, has been visited by Andrew and the Queen.

The Duke, the Queen and Philip’s second son, told reporters outside the King Edward VII Hospital in central London: “Oh, he’s mending very well. Thank you very much indeed.”

Philip’s visitors arrived separately, with the Queen spending around 50 minutes at her husband’s bedside, and Andrew approximately an hour and a half.

The Queen smiled broadly when she came out of the hospital as a small crowd of well-wishers cheered.

She did not say anything to the gathered media but Buckingham Palace said the Duke’s condition had “improved considerably”.

Philip, who is 91 on Sunday, was admitted to hospital on Monday, the day after he spent several hours braving the elements for the Thames River Pageant.

A palace statement said: “The treatment of his infection continues with antibiotics. He is likely to remain in hospital over the next few days. He is in good spirits.”

The illness forced Philip to miss several key events of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations, including a service of thanksgiving at St Paul’s Cathedral and the concert outside Buckingham Palace.

He has already been visited by the Earl and Countess of Wessex, accompanied by their children Louise and James.

Edward said his father was “feeling a lot better” and had watched events unfold on television.

Asked how the Queen was coping without her husband, Edward added: “She’s bearing up but missing him, obviously.”

Last December Philip underwent a successful procedure to clear a blocked coronary artery and was in hospital for four nights over Christmas.

Before the heart scare he had been fit and apparently healthy, and led the active life of a man of younger years.

In March this year his grandson Prince Harry said the operation had given him “a new spurt of life”.