Summary
Miss C complained that the board had unreasonably delayed in diagnosing and treating her brother (Mr A)'s prostate cancer. We took independent advice from a consultant urological surgeon (a doctor who specialises in the male and female urinary tract, and the male reproductive organs).
We found that communication about Mr A's diagnosis and prognosis had been reasonable. However, we found that there had been an avoidable delay in diagnosing his prostate cancer, and as a result there had been a possible delay of six to eight weeks in staring his treatment. We upheld the complaint. However, we noted that the delay had no significant clinical impact on the disease progression or prognosis.
Recommendations
What we asked the organisation to do in this case: Apologise to Miss C and the family for the delays identified in this case. The apology should meet the standards set out in the SPSO guidelines on apology available at www.spso.org.uk/information-leaflets .
What we said should change to put things right in future: Patients presenting with signs or symptoms of prostate cancer should be referred to the local multidisciplinary team meeting as soon the diagnosis is suspected.
We have asked the organisation to provide us with evidence that they have implemented the recommendations we have made on this case by the deadline we set.
Related reading
View Decision Report 201802874 as a PDF (26.12 KB) Updated: March 18, 2020