Breast cancer patients wrongly given the all-clear

In what is clearly an awful medical blunder, twenty-two women with breast cancer were wrongly given the all-clear after misdiagnoses by a radiologist at two hospitals in Manchester, UK.

The consultant radiologist, who worked at North Manchester General Hospital and Trafford General, has since been suspended.

It seems seventeen of the women had a delay in diagnosis of more than three months.

Health managers have regrettably admitted that some of the women could possibly die because of mistakes made from April 2003.

Concerns expressed last year by staff at the hospitals and criticism of the quality of his work, prompted the checking of almost 2,500 scans and mammograms carried out by the consultant.

An expert panel was convened to investigate the claims and their report was issued this week.

The report states that decisions on 238 patients were wrong, and of those, 22 women who were given the all-clear have now discovered they have breast cancer.

Of those 22, 17 had a delay in diagnosis of more than three months, and such delays in the diagnosis of breast cancer can have serious implications.

One of the women had a delay of two years before she was told she had breast cancer.

The hospitals have apologised to the women affected and admit the delay could mean a higher risk factor.

The hospitals say they intend to commission a full, independent investigation into the circumstances of the incident to identify the route causes, and prevent it from ever happening again.

Helplines are available on 0161 455 0059 for Trafford or 0161 656 1999 for North Manchester.