A bereaved family have told how they were aghast when a medical ‘robot doctor’ rolled into their grandfather’s hospital room and delivered the news that he had just days to live.

US media outlets have reported that Ernest Quintana, 78, went to Kaiser Permanente Medical Center’s emergency department in Fremont, California, last week.

Granddaughter Annalisia Wilharm told how she was with Mr Quintana when a robot arrived and a doctor appeared on a video screen to deliver the news that he was dying.

In a report on San Francisco news station KPIX 5, daughter Catherine Quintana described how her father was told by a video consultation that his lungs were failing and he didn’t have long to live.