Cancer patient 'denied' surgery

The HSE reviewed cases from August 2006 to August 2007

A cancer patient was denied the chance of major surgery that may have improved their chances of survival because of missed diagnoses by a consultant.

The Irish Health Service Executive (HSE) double checked the work of radiologist Dr James Murray, who was also a locum at hospitals in Scotland.

It found nine patients had their scans misdiagnosed.

The Irish HSE will report the former locum to the Irish Medical Council and British General Medical Council.

NHS Highland said it was still waiting for the final results of its own review of Dr Murray's work and others at Lorn and the Islands Hospital in Oban.

Palliative care

While not named in the report on the review, his responses to it have been included.

They included that he did not accept all of the points raised and there was what he called a "hindsight bias", but he also expressed his sincere condolences to the patients' families involved for the anguish caused.

Eight of the nine patients in Ireland have died.

The review found the missed diagnoses of X-rays and CT scans caused delays of some months in potential treatments, cures and earlier palliative care.

For one patient the delay of up to 14 months meant they were denied the chance of surgery that may have given them a 60% chance of survival.

Five others missed a small chance of care, while for two others the delays were found to have had no impact.

The HSE said it found nothing wrong with how the locum was recruited and said that the purpose of the review was not to find blame.

However, it said in this case it had a duty to make reports to the medical councils.

The review looks at thousands of scans and X-rays from August 2006 to August 2007.