Sussex NHS trust apologises for cancer treatment delays before man’s death

A troubled NHS trust has apologised to the family of a man who died after a series of delays led to him waiting four times longer for an operation than a national cancer target.

Before he died in November 2022, Ken Valder, 66, complained of “delays after delay” to his treatment for oesophageal cancer.

University Hospitals Sussex – the focus of a separate police investigation into allegations of surgical negligence and cover-ups over dozens of deaths between 2015 and 2021 – admitted that errors, failures and disagreements between surgeons contributed to delays to Valder’s treatment.

They also accepted that the case highlighted patient safety concerns that prompted the hospital regulator in 2022 to suspend upper gastrointestinal cancer services at the trust, which includes the Royal Sussex County hospital in Brighton.

An independent review of the case also found that Valder’s care was “suboptimal” and that if he had received surgery earlier it “might have led to a better oncological outcome”.

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Source: The Guardian, 17 June 2024