Doctor in cancer deaths scandal ‘repeats his mistake’
Radiologist allowed back to work after missing signs of disease in 18 patients ‘caused agonising delay’
A RADIOLOGIST who was allowed back to work after missing signs of cancer in several women has made the same mistake again with a new patient.
Dr Kong Fa Lan Keng Lun caused a scandal 10 years ago, when blunders forced health chiefs to review 6,000 scans he had classified as benign.
Eighteen women who had been given the all-clear at St Margaret’s Hospital, Epping, were subsequently told they had cancer. Some of them died.
Despite this, he was allowed to continue practising by the General Medical Council, but has since caused an “agonising” 14-month delay in the diagnosis of a middle-aged woman with breast cancer at a new hospital.
Ipswich Hospital is being sued because of Dr Lan’s handling of mammogram results, which an independent GMC expert said fell far short of expected competence. However, the watchdog has not struck off the radiologist and he remains at the NHS trust on a part-time basis.
He was also working as a private radiologist at Nuffield Health until 2016, where he had practising privileges, and appears on the website of the private insurer Bupa.
In the most recent case, the 46-yearold woman, from Suffolk, who does not wish to be named, attended Ipswich Hospital in June 2012 and September 2013.
She had been referred by her GP after suffering pain in her right breast for six months and nipple discharge – both signs of breast cancer.
Dr Lan carried out a mammogram and ultrasound but concluded there was no abnormality in either breast. But the woman returned as an emergency 14 months later and was diagnosed with a malignant tumour.
Fearing time was running out, the patient went to a private hospital and paid for a double mastectomy.
She is now forced to take a daily anticancer drug that is causing debilitating side-effects.
The patient is suing Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust, claiming the 14-month delay in getting an accurate diagnosis caused serious health complications and has shortened her life expectancy.
“It makes me so angry to think that I could have died because this cancer wasn’t treated for 14 months after I was first seen by Dr Lan. But what makes matters worse is that he has failed patients before and been allowed to come back and carry on treating women.”
The patient said the pain she suffered from the “horrendous” swelling in the months before her diagnosis was so bad she often passed out.
The trust admitted that during the initial consultation more tests should have been arranged that could have shown the need for further investigation. However, it disputes the claim that the delay has reduced the woman’s lifespan.