Prince Philip has spent a second night in hospital after undergoing a procedure on his heart.
The 90-year-old Duke of Edinburgh had a coronary stent fitted after he was taken to hospital on Friday suffering chest pains.
The BBC’s Royal Correspondent Peter Hunt says he is, by all accounts, very eager to leave Papworth Hospital in Cambridgeshire.
The Royal Family are gathering at their Sandringham estate in Norfolk.
The Queen’s Christmas broadcast this year has as its theme the strength of family, friends and the community working together.
Our correspondent says the royals will be greeted by well-wishers when they attend a church service on the estate.
He says the focus will be on the presence of the Duchess of Cambridge – celebrating her first Christmas with her in-laws – and on the absence of the duke from the Queen’s side.
Dr Simon Davies, a consultant intervention cardiologist at the Royal Brompton Hospital in London, said the Duke could have suffered a heart attack before the stenting procedure was performed.
He explained how the stent worked: “What they have done is they put a miniature sausage-shaped balloon down the artery, pushed the balloon into the narrowed section and then blown it up.
“That forces the material that is blocking the artery outwards and then gets the blood flowing down the artery again.”
Under observation
The Queen visited him in hospital on Christmas Eve and he remains under observation.
She was accompanied on the 45-minute visit by their sons Edward and Andrew, and daughter, Anne.
They arrived by helicopter for the visit, where they were met by the hospital’s chief executive and Professor John Cunningham, chief physician to the Queen.
After they left, the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall arrived by car from Highgrove.
BBC royal correspondent Nicholas Witchell said the fact the Queen had visited her husband so promptly suggested it was a “moment of real anxiety” for the Royal Family, albeit one which appeared to have passed.
Good spirits’
Speaking outside the hospital, Buckingham Palace spokeswoman Ailsa Anderson said on Saturday: “The Duke of Edinburgh had a good night and is in good spirits but he is eager to leave.
“Sunday’s church service is going ahead as planned and we don’t anticipate changes to the Royal Family’s Christmas celebrations.”
The duke is not expected to attend that Christmas Day church service at Sandringham.
The “minimally invasive” coronary stenting procedure he underwent involves pushing a balloon into the artery and inflating it to remove the blockage.
The stent is a mesh sleeve fitted over the balloon, which remains fixed in position inside the body when the balloon is removed.
Prince Philip would have remained conscious during the procedure.
He was flown to the hospital by an RAF helicopter. No other member of the Royal Family travelled with him.
Papworth is the UK’s largest specialist cardiothoracic hospital and the country’s main heart and lung transplant centre, treating more than 22,800 inpatient and day cases and 53,400 outpatients each year.
Senior members of the Royal Family, including the Prince of Wales and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, arrived at Sandringham on Saturday for Christmas.
The family traditionally travel to St Mary Magdalene Church on the royal estate for a service on Christmas Day, while the duke was due to be leading Sandringham’s Boxing Day shoot.
Prince Philip, who arrived at Sandringham on Monday, is the longest-serving royal consort and celebrated 64 years of marriage to the Queen in November.
He was last in hospital in April 2008, when he spent three days in London with a chest infection. On that occasion, the Queen did not visit him.
Speaking ahead of his 90th birthday, in June, the duke said he wanted to slow down. He stepped down as president or patron of more than a dozen organisations.
Royal biographer Penny Junor said the duke was generally in good health for his age.
“He is an extraordinarily fit man. He takes a lot of exercise, he does an awful lot of work. He’s in very good shape generally. So with luck this is a blip and he’ll be back fighting fit and back with the family for Christmas.”
The Queen’s Christmas Day broadcast to the nation will highlight the importance of the family unit. The speech, taped on 9 December, reflects on a year in which her grandson Prince William got married and her husband turned 90.
