Trust 'failed to act' on cancer patient's X-rays
A man who died from lung cancer might have been saved if a hospital trust had not "failed to act" on two abnormal chest X-rays, an investigation found.
Growths identified in the patient's examinations were not followed up for three years and were then untreatable, the health ombudsman said.
North Cumbria University Hospitals NHS Trust also failed to correctly handle a complaint from the man's daughter.
The trust, which runs hospitals in Carlisle and Whitehaven, apologised.
The investigation was carried out by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO), which deals with unresolved NHS England complaints.
The patient, referred to only as Mr C, was admitted twice to hospital with stroke-like symptoms in 2014 and 2015. On both occasions X-rays were carried out which found abnormal growths in his lungs, but no action was taken. In July 2017, Mr C was found to have advanced lung cancer and he died weeks later.
Source: BBC News, 29 April 2021