Lamentable from start to finish
After nurse died from cervical cancer despite being given all-clear SIX times, widower blasts report into failures as...
‘It misses the root cause’ ‘Determined to learn from this’
A WIDOWER whose wife died after her cervical cancer was missed six times has condemned a long overdue report into her care as ‘lamentable from start to finish’.
Julie O’Connor, who worked as a nurse in the NHS for 13 years, waited three years for a diagnosis after she was repeatedly reassured by Southmead Hospital in Bristol that she did not have the disease.
It was only when she went to see a private consultant that the mother of two learned she had a 1.8in tumour. Mrs O’Connor died aged 49 in February this year.
Now the Daily Mail has obtained the delayed report into her death, concluding that North Bristol NHS Trust ‘ failed Julie O’Connor on more than one occasion’.
But both the independent report and the trust’s own inquiry only look back as far as March 2017, when an internal alert was raised after Mrs O’Connor’s private diagnosis. Neither probe looks at her initial mis-read smear test in 2014 or five further visits she made to the hospital.
The report, published seven months later than planned, does not apportion blame for Mrs O’Connor’s death or ascertain exactly why her illness was missed. It also fails to make a wider analysis of the trust’s pathology or gynaecology department to Final days: Mrs O’Connor make sure other women are not at risk of misdiagnosis.
The inquiry is the only independent analysis of the missed diagnosis other than an inquest, which is yet to be scheduled. Mrs O’Connor’s husband Kevin said the findings of the report were ‘downright obvious’ and did not do enough to protect other women using the trust.
He said: ‘This report was a good opportunity to capture the serious failings in cervical screening which have lain dormant for years. Unfortunately the report is a lamentable job from start to finish.
‘It misses the root cause and fails to put in place the barriers and safeguards to protect other women. I’m not out to nail anybody, crucify anyone,
From Mail, February 12
I can’t change the past – just God forbid if anything happened to anyone else.’
The 30-page independent report, which has still not been made public, finds that there were ‘ at least’ two missed opportunities to identify abnormal cervical cells as well as ‘serious errors and subsequent failings’ in care.
Report author Dr Mike Durkin found that the trust ‘failed repeatedly’ to carry out a timely investigation. He also concluded that the investigation eventually carried out was ‘too limited’.
Mrs O’Connor went to Southmead for a smear test in September 2014 after moving to Thornbury in South Gloucestershire. It came back negative, although samples later sent for independent analysis showed the slide was ‘ plentiful’ with abnormal cells. A year after the smear test, Mrs O’Connor suffered persistent bleeding and her GP referred her to the hospital for further assessment.
Despite biopsies and medical examinations during five hospital trips over the next two years, she was repeatedly told she did not have cancer.
In 2017 Mrs O’Connor decided to see a private consultant about her persistent symptoms. It was then that a cervical tumour was identified, with a later biopsy and MRI confirming cancer.
Reflecting on the contents of the report, Mr O’Connor, who has not been paid to tell his story, said: ‘It just doesn’t seem serious – it just comes across as if s*** happens.’
The report was initially meant to be completed by the end of January – before Mrs O’Connor’s death – but was not handed to her widower until August this year. After Mrs O’Connor’s death, her husband took legal action against the trust but he dropped the case earlier this year when he realised how much it was costing the NHS. Mr O’Connor is still calling for a wider public inquiry.
North Bristol NHS Trust acting deputy medical director Professor Tim Whittlestone said: ‘We are determined to learn from this and have made significant changes to the way we examine and test for cervical cancer, which I am confident will detect and prevent more cases in future.’
NURSE LET DOWN BY NHS SHE LOVED