GP delayed referring woman with bowel cancer symptoms

What happened

Mr P's mother visited her GP on a number of occasions in 2007 and 2008 with bowel symptoms. In spring 2009 her GP referred her to a gastroenterologist. A colonoscopy was performed, which found a large upper rectal tumour. Further investigations showed that the cancer had spread to her liver. Mrs P had chemotherapy, which initially appeared to be successful. However, the cancer returned and she died in summer 2013.

What we found

The General Medical Council had previously found that the GP did not meet the standards expected of a reasonably competent GP. It said there were serious failings in the consultations the GP had with Mrs P in 2007 and 2008.

Our investigation looked at whether Mrs P's outcome would have been any different had she been referred to a gastroenterologist in 2007.

We found it was not possible to determine at what stage Mrs P's tumour would have been in 2007. We could not say for certain whether or not an earlier diagnosis would have made a difference to Mrs P's eventual outcome. However, we found that the Practice's failure to refer Mrs P sooner represented a missed opportunity that could have resulted in an earlier diagnosis and treatment, and possibly led to a different outcome.

This injustice to Mr P can never be remedied. He will never know for sure whether his mother would have survived longer than she did. For this reason we decided to partly uphold the complaint.

Putting it right

We were satisfied with the measures the Practice had put in place to help prevent a similar experience for patients in the future. However, we felt there was still an outstanding injustice to Mr P. The Practice accepted our recommendation and paid Mr P £1,500 in recognition of this.