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John Eastwood, 79, said his “wonderful” late wife Sandra’s cancer was not diagnosed straight away.
The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) recently closed its investigation into Mrs Eastwood’s death, claiming the delay meant she missed out on the chance of treatment which had a 95 per cent survival rate.
A spokesperson for York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said it “fully accepts” the ombudsman’s findings and apologise for the distress caused to Mrs Eastwood and her family.
They added that the trust has made a number of improvements and agreed to change its practice following the case.
Mrs Eastwood visited York Hospital with abdominal pain in June 2020.
CT scans showed a mass in the grandmother’s abdomen, which medics put down to medication she was taking following a heart valve replacement.
She was discharged, but returned to hospital in May 2021 when her symptoms got worse, and was eventually diagnosed with gastro-intestinal stromal tumour, a rare cancer of the digestive system.
Mrs Eastwood was told the cancer was terminal in January 2022 and died four months later.
“I feel absolutely disgusted with the ‘care’ she received from the hospital,” Mr Eastwood said.
“They didn’t investigate the scan results and just put it down to Warfarin straight away.
“It seemed like the medical teams did not communicate with each other and everything felt very disjointed.
“They left her in agony for months before she died.”
Ombudsman probe finds scans not interpreted correctly
A probe by the PHSO found Mrs Eastwood’s scans were not interpreted correctly and the images should have been reviewed by a multi-disciplinary, with further investigations of the mass performed within three months.
Health ombudsman Rob Behrens added: “What happened to Mrs Eastwood was unacceptable and her family’s grief will no doubt have been compounded by knowing that mistakes were made in her care.
“Her case also shows, in the most tragic of ways, that while some progress has been made on my recommendations to improve imaging services, it is not enough and more must be done.
“Government must act now to prioritise this issue and protect more patients from harm.”
Sir Julian Hartley, chief executive at NHS Providers, said: “These findings lay bare the alarming impact of stretched resources on patients.
“At a time when demand for services has never been higher, the NHS is grappling with over 110,000 staff shortages.
“Trust leaders are doing all they can to ensure timely, high-quality care for patients, their number one priority, but their efforts need to be backed nationally.
“The patient ramifications of pared-back staff and outdated equipment and IT systems must not be side-lined.”
The findings come as the England health ombudsman warned an overstretched, understaffed health service with exhausted workers under “unsustainable pressure” is putting cancer patients at risk.
Mr Behrens is now calling for “concerted and sustained action” from the Government to allow NHS leaders to put patient safety first.
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