A woman who suffered a severe loss of vision in her left eye has been awarded £40,000 compensation by a Hospital Trust due to delays in her being seen by specialists.
Having suffered from blurred vision in her left eye, the woman visited her GP, and then her opticians, and although reassured she had not lost any of her sight at that time, was told she required an urgent assessment with a consultant to ensure the right course of treatment.
However, despite the GP making the urgent referral, Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust booked her in for an appointment five months later.
When the woman, 64, was finally seen in March 2019 at Royal Preston Hospital, she was found to have suffered severe loss of vision due to macular degeneration, a condition which affects the middle part of vision, causing a build-up of fluid.
Following treatment her sight did slightly improve, but only to a point where she would need to be six metres away from an object to see it as clearly as somebody with normal vision would be able to see from 60 metres.
She has been told her vision in her left eye will never improve.
Investigation said lessons had not been learned from previous case
The woman’s treatment was subject to a Serious Incident Investigation (SIR), which found changes recommended to the referral process from a previous similar incident had not been implemented, which could have prevented the error.
It was also highlighted that the hospital appointment booking system did not show the GP’s urgent referral when it was made, and instead highlight the type of medical appointment required, and was therefore scheduled in non-urgent time frames.
An independent expert consultant ophthalmologist, who was consulted about the case and reviewed the treatment provided, said that, in his opinion, had treatment had been of an appropriate standard started within two weeks of the urgent GP referral, the patient would have retained a good level of vision without any significant functional impairment.
The woman said it has had a huge impact on her life. She said:
My left eye is now useless as I cannot see clearly. I have distortion, blurred vision and a constant flickering light. I have lost confidence, and even things like stepping off kerbs and going down stairs has become tricky.
Simple things like pouring a kettle into a cup is now hazardous. It has not only been the vision in my left eye that has deteriorated, but also my quality of life.
Legal case settled out of court
Hayley Collinson, a senior associate solicitor at medical negligence specialists Hudgell Solicitors, led the legal claim on behalf of the woman, securing the £40,000 damages settlement without the need for the case to be heard in court as the Trust admitted the delay had been negligent. She said:
Too often in the work that we do we see patients who are ‘lost to follow up’ – and that means they are either not allocated appointments, or are not reviewed in a timely manner, which the impacts on the effectiveness of treatment, and impacts negatively on their future health.
In this case, the GP made an urgent referral on her behalf, but she was then given an appointment some five months later because the system used did not flag it as an urgent request. My client questioned this but was effectively told the date was the only one available.
A five month delay between an urgent, emergency referral and assessment is obviously negligent and systems should have been in place to prevent this from happening. It was our case that, has she been given timely treatment, on the balance of probabilities, her eyesight would have been near normal.
