A practice in the Essex area

3. Mrs E complains the Practice failed to refer her husband to an appropriate specialist in good time, after he kept showing symptoms of a persistent cough. She says this was between January and June 2022.

4. Mrs E says there was a missed opportunity to diagnose lung cancer, for Mr E to get targeted cancer treatment and to be able to spend more time with his family.

5. Mrs E wants an apology, service improvements and a financial payment.

6. Mr E had phone appointments with his GP several times between January and June 2022. Each time he reported a persistent cough.

7. Mr E was diagnosed with an infection each time and prescribed antibiotics.

8. Mr E was diagnosed with lung cancer on 1 June and died of the disease in September 2022.

11. When considering complaints, we must look at the law to make sure that we can investigate. One thing we must check is whether there is a possible legal route that would resolve the complaint and if it is reasonable for this to be explored.

12. The law says we cannot investigate a complaint if there is (or was) a legal route available, unless it is (or was) not reasonable for them to look into this.

13. We are very sorry to hear about Mr E’s experiences and we appreciate Mrs E feels there has been a failing that meant he missed out on an earlier diagnosis, targeted treatment and more time with his family. We think this is something she may be able to explore by making a legal claim.

14. We have looked at whether it is reasonable for Mrs E to do this and if it would achieve the outcomes she wants. Mrs E did not consider legal advice before coming to us and did not tell us about anything that would stop her from getting legal advice. After speaking with us, Mrs E decided to look into her legal options.

15. Mrs E explained she is looking for an apology, service improvements and a financial payment. Mrs E was unsure of the amount she wanted but confirmed it would be more than £3,000. It seems likely that a legal case would be able to achieve this if successful. We also considered whether legal action would achieve everything she wants. An apology and service improvements can be indirect outcomes of a successful legal claim.

16. We also considered what we could achieve if we were to investigate. When looking at our scale of injustice (guidance we use to decide on how much to recommend) Mrs E felt her experience fitted with level five on the scale. For this level we would recommend £3,000 to £9,950. We could recommend a payment in this range if we found failings that we could link with the impact Mrs E describes. But, the amount we recommend is often much lower than what a court could recommend. Mrs E explained she would get legal advice as she feels the failings were exceptional and any financial outcome should reflect that. Mrs E explained she would not be happy with the lower level of payment that we usually achieve.

17. As it seems reasonable for Mrs E to explore legal action, we think this is the best thing for her to do. Mrs E is invited to return to us with any outstanding issues not considered by a court or if she cannot take legal action. She should come back to us as soon as possible because we have a one-year time limit for accepting complaints.

1. We have carefully considered Mrs E’s complaint about a GP practice in the Essex area (the Practice). We are very sorry to learn of the difficulties experienced by Mrs E’s husband, Mr E, in getting a diagnosis. We are also very sad to hear that Mr E died and we offer our condolences to Mrs E and her son.

2. Having considered the details of the complaint and after speaking with Mrs E, we think there is a legal route that she can take to resolve her complaint.