Delay in removing stent increased risk of complications and caused patient distress

What happened

Trust doctors found that Mr A had inflamed tissue in his pancreas that was beginning to die. Mr A's bile duct (a narrow tube coming out of the liver which delivers bile, a digestive juice, to the bowel) had become narrowed. The doctors inserted a plastic tube (a stent) into his bile duct to treat this.

The doctors tried unsuccessfully to remove the stent after five months. Another attempt three months later was also unsuccessful. There was a six-week delay in arranging a CT scan (a scan that uses X-rays and a computer to create detailed images of the inside of the body) that was necessary to help decide the next course of treatment.

Mr A began to suffer from severe vomiting, constipation, swollen stomach and weight loss. Doctors thought that he might have an obstruction and ordered a barium meal test (a special X-ray test used to examine the stomach). It took Trust staff over five weeks to carry out the test, but no obstruction was found. Doctors were eventually able to remove Mr A's stent.

Mr A complained to the Trust about his care and treatment. He was dissatisfied with its response and complained to us.

What we found

There was a delay in the doctors' attempt to remove Mr A's stent. The difficulty in removing the stent was probably caused by technical problems related to complications of Mr A's pancreatic disease. There were also delays in arranging tests, and these further delayed staff removing the stent.

The Trust's avoidable delays amounted to service failure that caused Mr A concern.

Mr A was also concerned that the delays led him to develop type 1 diabetes. However, this was not the case.

We therefore partly upheld Mr A's complaint about the Trust.

Putting it right

The Trust wrote to Mr A to acknowledge and apologise for the service failure and the effect that had on him.

The Trust also prepared an action plan that showed what it had done or planned to do to avoid the failings happening again.