Claims the NHS is ‘not a safe service’ as report reveals hundreds of shocking failings

A new Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman report details 121 investigated NHS complaints, including eight from Yorkshire, highlighting three avoidable deaths and multiple examples of poor end of life care and other failures in the two months from December 2014.

One example showed the care of a woman in her 70s “fell below an acceptable standard” when nurses at Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust’s gynaecological outpatient clinic failed to refer her to her GP for repeated episodes of vaginal bleeding in 2012. She was diagnosed with endometrial cancer and died in mid 2014.

It emerged the delay in a GP referral did not give the woman “the best possible chance of receiving treatment at the earliest possible stage”. A trust spokesman has reiterated its apology and said it has since changed its processes.

MP for York Central Rachael Maskell, of the Government’s Health Select Committee, believes that growing pressures on the health service combined with continued efficiency savings mean the NHS is “not a safe service” at the moment.

She said: “Without doubt the pressures being put on NHS staff at this time will mean that you can’t have eyes and ears everywhere and that will impact on the service. NHS staff have a duty of care to raise concerns if staffing levels are unsafe or if services are at risk, and that should be pushed up the line.”

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman made decisions on 556 complaints during the two-month period, of which 201 were upheld or partially upheld. It investigated 58 cases of avoidable death and upheld or partially upheld 29.

They included a man with learning disabilities in the West Midlands who died of multiple organ failure “after a series of failures in care and a lack of consideration for his rights as a disabled person”.

In another investigated case, a Doncaster and Bassetlaw Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust surgeon damaged a patient’s spleen during a colon operation but did not tell the patient or give appropriate aftercare advice. Two weeks later his spleen ruptured and had to be removed. The trust apologised and said it has “taken steps to alter our practices”.

Another case examined was that of a woman whose treatment by her GP practice, an out-of-hours GP and Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust delayed her diagnosis. She died two weeks after being told she had bone cancer. The trust said it is “very sorry” and aims to ensure such incidents “remain isolated”.

Ombudsman Dame Julie Mellor added: “This report shows the types of unresolved complaints we receive and the human cost of that poor service and complaint handling. Many of the complaints that come to us should have been resolved by the organisation complained about.”

NHS bosses are hoping to make £22billion worth of savings by 2020.