HAVE YOU BEEN AFFECTED?
Bonallack & Bishop have recently been appointed as solicitors for some of the victims of potential medical accidents caused by the mis-interpretation of colonoscopies performed at the UKSH NHS Treatment Centre at Shepton Mallet in Somerset.
There have been press reoprts that a surgeon who performed 1,828 colonoscopies at this clinic between October 2005 and March 2008 used poor diagnostic techniques, resulting in probable missed diagnoses of up to 580 patients. 100 patients have been recalled for urgent review; 480 have been referred for a follow-up colonoscopy and 755 have been advised to contact their GP. The clinic is privately owned but sells its services to the NHS in an aim to reduce NHS waiting times. The doctor was initially suspended and later resigned from the centre.
A colonoscopy is a technique used to diagnose lower bowel problems by inserting a camera into the bowel. Commonly the diagnoses are bowel cancer, diverticulitis and Crohn’s disease.
Denise Broomfield, solicitor and medical negligence claim specialist at Bonallack and Bishop, says, “Situations such as this are of the utmost severity for the people concerned. A colonoscopy is always performed as a result of a patient’s GP being concerned about the health of a patient’s bowel. The most common concern is that the patient has bowel cancer but the technique is also used to diagnose Crohn’s disease and diverticulitis which although not life-threatening can have serious consequences for a person’s day to day health. Obviously patients are thrown into a complete state of panic if they realise that they had been given the all clear for a potential life threatening condition and are later recalled.”
Denise Broomfield has previously represented clients affected by the misinterpretation of smear test results taken for cervical cancer by Swindon doctor James Ellwood. Dr Ellwood misdiagnosed 200 cancer patients in 2000. Denise comments, “I learned from representing those clients that the most important thing for people to do is to have their follow up checks as soon as possible. Hopefully the vast majority of the patients who have previously received the all clear will still be given the all clear.”
When asked whether patients who have had their bowel condition misdiagnosed would have a compensation claim against UKSH, Denise says, “Failure to perform and interpret the results of a colonoscopy correctly would amount to substandard medical care and would be a breach of the doctor’s duty of care to the patient. To bring a compensation claim the patient would also have to be able to show that their health would have been better but for the error. For example, if a person should have been diagnosed with bowel cancer as a result of the colonoscopy and they were not and have been walking around with undiagnosed and untreated cancer as a result, they will have to be able to prove that they would have been able to have had their cancer treated and made a recovery if their treatment had commenced sooner. I have a panel of independent gastro-entrologists who are able to help me answer this question for the patient.”
For further legal advice please contact Denise Broomfield at denise.broomfield@bishopslaw.com or on 01722 424419.
If you might have been affected, please click here to download an enquiry form, which can be completed and emailed back to Denise on the above address.
