Hospital ordered to apologise to family after failings in cancer care
A grieving son has described how his mother faced “delay after delay” at a hospital where half of cancer patients start treatment within two months.
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Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust has been ordered to apologise to the family of the 67-year-old woman, known only as Mrs S, by England’s health ombudsman.
The retired history teacher and mother-of-two, from Chelmsford in Essex, died in 2023.
Mrs S – described as heavily involved in her local community by volunteering, singing in choirs and playing tennis – first visited her GP with uncomfortable abdominal bloating in January 2023 and was referred to the trust.
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Mrs S was given a CT scan on February 16, a biopsy on March 15 and received a diagnosis of ovarian cancer on March 21.
She was told that while she would not survive the cancer, chemotherapy may extend her life.
Treatment was scheduled to begin a month later but due to delays in diagnosis and treatment, she was no longer well enough to have the treatment, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) said.
The PHSO said that if the trust had been meeting waiting time standards, she would have begun treatment on April 3, when she was well enough to receive chemotherapy.
It highlighted how Mrs S’s diagnosis took 49 days and her treatment did not start for 81 days after the referral.
NHS England targets at the time were for cancer to be diagnosed within 28 days of referral and treatment to begin within 62 days, the PHSO said.
The ombudsman said that after Mrs S’s son complained about his mother’s treatment, the hospital trust said that it had improved its performance on cancer wait times, but performance against its treatment targets had declined.
In February 2023, some 47.6% of cancer patients were treated within 62 days and figures suggested that by July 2025, this figure had dropped to 46.1%.
The equivalent figure for October 2025 – the latest data available – was 47.1%.
The PHSO concluded that failings by the trust caused distress to Mrs S and her family.
It recommended a review into waiting times, along with other improvements, and told the trust to apologise to the family.
Mrs S’s son, a 31-year-old chartered surveyor, said: “I had trust in the NHS, so whenever they told us things like scans would happen, we believed them. But it was just delay after delay.
“My mother and I kept asking questions and for updates but never got anywhere and the whole situation was just confusing and frustrating.
“After we finally had the diagnosis, we were almost relieved and we expected treatment to start straight away. But again, it took too long to confirm the chemotherapy date.”
He said he still had “nightmares” about his mother being unsafely discharged from hospital without support in the days leading up to her death.
He said: “If she had received the care she should have had, then her quality of life would have improved and we may have had more time together.”
PHSO Paula Sussex said: “In this case, we recommended that the trust should investigate its performance against national targets and make a robust plan for how it will improve.
“The trust has committed to carrying out this work and will be rolling out new technology to help it allocate resources more efficiently and increase capacity for cancer appointments.
“While this will sadly not change what happened in this case, it highlights how one complaint can make a difference.
“Because of this investigation, other patients and families should experience wait times that are in line with national guidance.”
Dawn Scrafield, chief executive of Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We know that waiting for cancer diagnosis and treatment is a worrying time and we offer sincere apologies to Mrs S’s family for the delay in her treatment.
“Demand has increased, and we are reviewing how we manage the need for more diagnostic services.
“We have begun an integrated improvement plan, working with our health and care system partners to speed up treatment times and get patients to the right place at the right time.
“Cancer care is one of our key priorities, and we can already see our wait times reducing in some cancers as we deliver extra clinics and theatre scheduling.”