This morning BBC news reported that the Parliamentary Health and Safety Ombudsman (PHSO) has warned that doctors repeated failures to carry out, correctly interpret or properly follow up CTs, X-rays and other medical scans are resulting in cancer-diagnosis delays and avoidable patient deaths.

More than 40 cases of errors in interpreting medical scans that have led to patient harm in the last four years have been upheld or partially upheld by the PHSO.

The PHSO chairman for England, Rebecca Hilsenrath, commented that limited progress has been made since the PHSO 2021 report which recommended a system-wide programme of improvements for effective management of medical scans. Ms Hilsenrath has urged NHS leaders address this patient safety issue and take action.

Nimish Patel, our Head of Personal Injury and Clinical Negligence, is currently fighting a number of claims on behalf of people whose diagnosis of cancer has been delayed by over 6 months and sometimes up to 2 years which has meant that opportunities have been lost for early detection and treatment.

“We have been instructed in relation to claims where families have been devastated to learn that biopsies and scans have been delayed or failed to take place where a tumour could have been spotted before it has grown or been transported to other parts of the body. The lessons from previous reports in 2021 have not been implemented and the delays through healthcare generally have made matters worse, particularly in relation to women’s health.

We have a lady who underwent a routine scan which missed the presence of a tumour from a scan two years previously and she has now been diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer.  We also have a lady who was informed by the NHS that they had missed a tumour on a previous scan and she had months to live with no treatment options provided and then she sought private chemotherapy and radiotherapy which has stabilised her cancer over the past 18 months.

There is also a gentleman who was given the all clear in relation to his scans for 18 months and then required emergency surgery to remove a cancerous growth in Poland as the NHS scans had not been reported properly. Another  gentleman in Wales has had an appeal to the ombudsman  upheld  where there were delays to his appointments and the NHS have blamed  Covid lockdowns whereas they could have treated him  long before Covid had become a factor.

There have been numerous instances where patients have had routine scan appointments or planned reviews have been delayed or rearranged which have caused greater anxiety whilst waiting for results.  Recent developments have considered using AI to consider the detection of cancer following routine mammograms in order to reduce backlogs  and increased  earlier  detection of  cancer but studies have shown that they are no more successful in accurately diagnosing cancer than the scans being considered by radiologists and in  some cases have led to  unnecessary invasive treatment where the radiologists would not have advocated intervening.

On balance, this must be a much needed positive step towards future treatment and there needs to be greater investment in particular in relation to early detection of cancer in women.