The Public Services Ombudsman for Wales has recommended that a GP should pay a man £3000 for failing to refer his mother to a specialist for suspected cancer, from which she later died.

The sum is in recognition of the additional suffering the man – referrred to as mr K – endured due to the uncertainty about what outcome may have resulted from an appropriate and prompt referral.

The complaint was against Dr R.D. Bohra and related to failure to refer a patient appropriately.

The Ombudsman says that mr K complained about treatment that his mother, mrs K, received from her GP, Dr Bohra (“the GP”).

Mr K said that the GP failed to diagnose or refer mrs K appropriately when she presented symptoms to him. mrs K was later diagnosed with renal cancer in hospital and sadly died. mr K maintained that an urgent referral from the GP may have prevented her death.

The Ombudsman found that the GP should have referred mrs K urgently after one particular consultation. during that visit mrs K told the GP that she had passed blood in her urine and had pain in her abdomen.

The Ombudsman found that the GP should have referred mrs K to a specialist for suspected cancer. Clinical guidelines indicate that blood in the urine should lead to such a referral under what is known as “the two week rule”. This means that a patient is seen by a relevant specialist within the two weeks. By not doing so in this case, the GP made a significant error.

The Ombudsman concluded that mrs K would have had a much better chance of survival if the GP had made the referral.