Cancer patients at risk from stretched NHS, says NHS complaints chief

By Smitha MundasadCancer patients could be at risk due to overstretched and "exhausted" health staff in a "system at breaking point", England's NHS ombudsman has warned.

He added: "But patient safety will always be at risk in environments that are understaffed and where staff are exhausted and under unsustainable pressure." Problems investigated by his team included concerns about poor communication, end-of-life care and how complaints were handled. Mrs Eastwood, who lived in York, died in 2022, with a rare digestive system cancer called gastrointestinal stromal tumour.CT scans showed a mass which medics put down to a blood clot caused by medication she was taking for a unrelated heart valve replacement.The report found that if Mrs Eastwood had been diagnosed earlier and scans interpreted correctly, the cancer might not have spread and she may have been eligible for surgery.

"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. The spokesperson added that the trust has made a number of improvements and agreed to change its practice following the case.

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