Medical negligence news

Bristol Trust pathology scandal

Michelmores' Laurence Vick quoted in Sunday Telegraph: Bristol Trust in pathology scandal  showed "alarming lack of candour".

Read the article here

A review of biopsies carried out at Bristol Royal Infirmary suggests nearly 7,000 errors may have been committed. Following a number of misdiagnoses, the Mishcon inquiry carried out after doctors raised concerns about the standards of pathology at the hospital highlighted that in an audit of 3,500 cases in 3.4% of those cases independent pathologists found that the wrong diagnosis had been made.

Laura Donnelly's report in the Sunday Telegraph of 19 February 2012 - link attached - suggests that with a 3.4% error rate the data could represent up to 6,800 errors over a 10 year period.

Michelmores' Clinical Negligence partner Laurence Vick acts in the cases of Catherine Calland and the late Jane Hopes. Laurence Vick represented  the families' legal team at the public inquiry into the children's heart scandal, also at the Bristol Royal Infirmary, more than 10 years ago.

He said over this latest apparent scandal that the hospital trust had displayed an "alarming lack of candour" in its response to patients who had been misdiagnosed and in failing to respond to  concerns raised by a possible 10 doctors who blew the whistle. One of the doctors Dr Nassif Ibrahim, a consultant pathologist at North Bristol trust, now retired, said the investigation had been "a whitewash from the start" and that a 3% error rate would never be acceptable. He added. "I would not have wanted a biopsy from a member of my family to go there." 

Laurence Vick fears that the hospital has learned little from the Kennedy inquiry.  "We are told that the patient should be placed firmly at the centre of everything in the NHS but there has been a lamentable failure to do so in these cases"

He added  "There was clearly a failure by medical directors and senior NHS managers to act on doctors' and patients' concerns.  What exactly did they know and when? What did they do or not do when they became aware of those concerns? Just as happened with the paediatric cardiac scandal in the 1990's, the Trust management seem to be ignoring doctors' legitimate concerns, this time over histopathology safety in Bristol. The most alarming aspect is the question of whether there may be other patients out there who have been misdiagnosed but are unaware of this and therefore who may have missed out on crucial treatment".

"There are allegations that a list of such cases exists, but that the hospital has done nothing about it. The 26 confirmed cases where misdiagnosis occured relate to respiratory, gynecological, breast and skin cancers. We have no way of knowing if there are concerns over a greater number than the 26 cases. Hopefully not - but we still do not know the basis on which the inquiry limited it's investigation to this number.

"We hope to make swift progress after we have completed our investigations.  We would be interested to hear from anybody who feels they may have knowledge of or concerns about histopathology at Bristol Royal Infirmary, and which may affect these cases"

For more information please contact laurence.vick@michelmores.com

Created: 20/02/2012
Categories: Cancer treatment, Misdiagnosis