Delayed complaint response added to stress for patient with tumour

Summary 297 |

Mrs A's oesophagus was perforated during an endoscopy procedure. She was later diagnosed with a tumour, which her daughter, Ms C, believed got worse because of the incident.


What happened

Mrs A attended the Trust for an endoscopy procedure to improve her difficulty with swallowing. During the endoscopy, the surgeon perforated her oesophagus. Mrs A was transferred as an emergency for specialist care at another Trust.

Ms C complained that the surgeon had made a mistake when the perforation happened. She said that Mrs A had a tumour at the time, and the tumour was missed. She said the perforation caused the tumour to spread, which eventually led to Mrs A's death nine months later.

What we found

There were no failings in the clinical care and treatment. Mrs A experienced an unfortunate but known complication of the procedure. It would not have been possible to diagnose the tumour through an endoscopy, and a CT scan after the procedure did not show any evidence of a tumour.

However, there were delays in the Trust's response to the complaint, which caused Mrs A and Ms C additional stress and anxiety during a difficult time.

Putting it right

The Trust wrote to Ms C to acknowledge it should have handled the complaint in a timelier manner. It identified the reasons for the delays, apologised for them, and explained what actions it had taken to avoid delays in responding to complaints in future. It also explained a number of other actions it had taken to improve its complaint handling.

Health or Parliamentary
Health
Organisations we investigated

The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Location

UK

Complainants' concerns ?

Delayed replying to complaint

Result

Apology

Recommendation to learn lessons or draw up an action plan