Mr D complained that the GP practice did not refer his wife for investigation of her symptoms, which later turned out to be cancer. He also complained that an oncologist did not arrange to monitor the cancer after radiotherapy was complete. Mr D said that the Trust did not give a reasonable standard of care and treatment when his wife was in hospital, and that its complaint handing was poor.
What happened
Mrs D had a number of medical conditions, including a serious lung problem. She visited the practice on nine occasions in 2009 with symptoms such as coughing and wheezing. Mrs D then went into hospital with shortness of breath and a worsening cough. Doctors diagnosed that she had lung cancer that had spread to her lymph nodes, and an oncologist arranged a course of palliative radiotherapy. A scan then revealed that the cancer had spread to her liver and spine and she started chemotherapy. She was discharged from hospital and died.
What we found
The practice delayed referring Mrs D for further investigations. However, we did not find that this delay limited her treatment options or contributed to her death. We therefore partly upheld the complaint about the practice. We found no service failure in the care and treatment given by the oncologist or the hospital where Mrs D was an inpatient. We did not uphold these complaints. However, the Trust's complaint handling was poor.
Putting it right
The Practice and the Trust agreed to prepare action plans to explain how they intend to learn lessons from the failings we identified. The Trust also apologised for its failings and paid £250 compensation.
A GP practice
East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust
UK
Did not apologise properly or do enough to put things right
Did not take sufficient steps to improve service
Apology
Compensation for non-financial loss