England’s Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman ordered University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust to pay £3,300. 

England’s Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) has found that the failure of University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust to diagnose a woman’s cancer denied her time with her family. 

The woman underwent a CT scan at the Trust towards the end of November 2017 to investigate a potential liver problem. While nothing significant was found on her liver, the scan revealed a nodule and a possible pulmonary embolism on her left lung.

In December, the woman was referred to a clinic to treat the pulmonary embolism. The consultant at the clinic wrote to her GP asking her to be referred for another CT scan three months later to investigate the nodule. This was not done and a review in mid-April 2018 revealed the follow-up scan had not been carried out.

An urgent CT scan towards the end of May 2018 revealed the woman had lung cancer, of which she died aged 81 in February 2019.

An acknowledgement of failings

The woman’s daughter brought her complaint to PHSO.

The Ombudsman found the woman should have been diagnosed with lung cancer in December 2017, around six months earlier. The Trust should not have passed the matter back to the woman’s GP and did not appropriately follow up on the lung nodule’s finding.

Though PHSO did not predict what might have happened, it suggested that the woman may have lived longer if the diagnosis had been made sooner. 

The Trust had already apologised to the woman, acknowledged its failings and taken action to avoid a reoccurrence for other patients. The PHSO, however, recommended the Trust pay the woman £3,300 for the distress it caused. This has now happened. 

“We have seen failings in multiple aspects of cancer care in the past. It is important that when mistakes are identified in healthcare, they are acted upon, and improvements made in order to deliver a better service for all,” said PHSO Rebecca Hilsenrath. 

“In this case, we welcome an acknowledgement of failings and improvements made by this Trust. A key aspect of our service to the public is about encouraging learning from complaints and we hope this means others will not have to experience the same issues again.”