NHS Grampian and Orkney apologise for cancer patient’s care

Two health boards have apologised for failings in the care of a patient who had two cancers at the same time and later died.

A watchdog has upheld a complaint against NHS Grampian that it delayed in initiating treatment for the patient’s bowel cancer, and that reviews it carried out were “inadequate”.

The Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO), also found that NHS Orkney failed to mark an MRI scan request as urgent.

The person, who has been identified as patient A, had been receiving treatment for bladder cancer.

Both health boards said they accepted the ombudsman’s findings and had formally apologised.

The SPSO investigated complaints raised by the patient’s family and ordered the health boards to apologise.

It said there was a failure to provide a reasonable standard of care and treatment to patient A, and that both authorities had failed to meet obligations on transparency around the patient’s care.

The watchdog also made a number of recommendations for improvements.

The SPSO took advice from a cancer surgeon on the services provided to patient A.

Commenting on NHS Grampian, the watchdog said: “We found that there was a failure to provide a reasonable standard of care and treatment to A, particularly in relation to delays in initiating treatment for their colorectal (bowel) cancer.”

It said reviews of the person’s care were inadequate, and that its handling of the complaint against it was “unreasonable”.

The SPSO said about NHS Orkney: “We found that there was a failure to provide a reasonable standard of care and treatment to A, particularly in relation to a failure to mark an MRI scan request as urgent, and a failure to report the results of scopes in the normal way.”