Damning NHS failures that led to a nurse's death

Let down by the NHS: Cancer victim Julie O’Connor with daughter Sophie, 22

Let down by the NHS: Cancer victim Julie O’Connor with daughter Sophie, 22

A damning report has laid bare the shocking extent of an NHS hospital’s failure to diagnose a nurse’s cervical cancer.

A smear test sample taken from Julie O’Connor was ‘plentiful’ with abnormal cells and it was a ‘breach of duty of care’ that they were not noticed, an independent analysis found.

Mrs O’Connor, who worked in the NHS for 13 years, was wrongly told six times by Southmead Hospital in Bristol that she did not have cervical cancer.

It was only when she went to see a private consultant three years after the original test that she learned the truth.

By that time, the mother-of-two was told that she had a 4.5cm tumour and her illness was terminal. She died last week.

Mrs O’Connor and her husband Kevin condemned health chiefs at North Bristol Hospital Trust for the blunders that eventually cost the 49-year-old her life.

They say a diagnosis should have been made as early as September 2014, when Mrs O’Connor went for a smear test.

The test results returned to her said that her sample was negative – suggesting there was nothing of concern. However, an independent analysis of the original sample – which the family paid for themselves after learning she did, in fact, have cancer – paints a very different picture.

The report was carried out by Dr Sanjiv Manek, who is a consultant gynaecological pathologist at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust.

It says ‘there are plentiful abnormal cells all over this slide’, adding it was ‘unreasonable’ the sample was reported as negative.

Mrs O’Connor (left), who worked in the NHS for 13 years, was wrongly told six times by Southmead Hospital in Bristol that she did not have cervical cancer

Mrs O’Connor (left), who worked in the NHS for 13 years, was wrongly told six times by Southmead Hospital in Bristol that she did not have cervical cancer

Mr and Mrs O’Connor had been a couple since they were 18 years old and had two children, Sophie (centre left), 22, and Daniel, 19 (right)

Mr and Mrs O’Connor had been a couple since they were 18 years old and had two children, Sophie (centre left), 22, and Daniel, 19 (right)

The report adds: ‘It should have been straightforward to pick out these abnormalities and make a diagnosis.’

Experts concluded that had these abnormalities been detected, a colposcopy would have been carried out and ‘a precancerous and in my opinion early cancerous lesion would have been detected’.

The report said that such action would have detected the problem ‘at a stage when simpler treatment would have sufficed’.

Why women are put off screening 

By Kate Pickles, Health Correspondent for the Daily Mail 

Women are being put off cervical screening over fears the results could suggest they or their partners have been cheating, a survey has found.

Experts from charity Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust have warned that a sense of ‘shame’ from being diagnosed with human papilloma virus (HPV) – the virus responsible for most cervical cancer cases – is adding to the anxiety of smear tests.

They said the infection, which affects eight out of ten women at some point in their lives, must be ‘normalised’ to encourage more women to attend life-saving screening.

The survey of more than 2,000 women found nearly one in four said they would be worried about what people thought of them if told they had HPV and slightly more said they would worry their partner had been unfaithful.

Seven in ten said they would be scared to hear they had HPV and two-thirds would worry it meant they had cancer.

But the charity’s findings also showed many respondents did not understand the link between HPV and cancer.

A third said they did not know the virus, which can be dormant, could cause cervical cancer and almost all were unaware of its links to throat or mouth cancer.

Campaigners said the findings were particularly worrying given the new HPV screening will replace the existing cervical cancer test later this year. It means samples will first be checked for high-risk strands of the virus before being sent for further examination if necessary.

Robert Music, chief

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