Patients suing NHS over missed cancer diagnoses up 50 per cent, report shows

Delayed or incorrect health tests have cost at least £81 million in damages and legal fees, a Liberal Democrats’ FOI has found

The number of NHS patients suing over missed cancer diagnoses has increased by half in the past two years, statistics have revealed.
Incorrect or delayed cancer diagnoses have cost the NHS £81.5 million in damages and legal fees between April 2021 and March 2023, according to a Freedom of Information request by the Liberal Democrats.
Sir Ed Davey said the figures were an example of “a system that’s going wrong”, in an interview with The Telegraph ahead of the party’s Spring Conference in March.
The Liberal Democrat leader said he believed the party could repeat their general election success of 1997 under Paddy Ashdown – when they doubled their seats and had their highest number of MPs in almost 70 years.
He also indicated that he would not have done anything differently during his time as postal affairs minister, after coming under fire over his role in the Horizon scandal.
The number of claims brought against the NHS for missed cancer diagnosis rose from a yearly average of 140 between 2017 and 2021 to 208 per year from 2021 to 2023 – a jump of 49 per cent.
Data from NHS Resolution revealed that the NHS paid out a total of £81.5 million in damages and legal costs between April 2021 and March 2023 – an average of £40.8 million a year.
This represents an increase of 64 per cent from an average of £24.9 million a year over the previous four years.
The Liberal Democrat leader said the figures reflected that there was no “success story” in the Government’s performance on cancer treatment, despite assertions that a record number of patients had been treated over the past two years.
“If we really had a success story, I think the Government would be trumpeting it rather more loudly. We don’t,” he told The Telegraph.
The party has pledged to invest in 200 new radiotherapy machines to tackle the delay in cancer treatment, as well as recruiting 3,400 more cancer nurses.
Pledges to reform the NHS, with a specific focus on cancer care, are central to the offering of the Liberal Democrats for the upcoming election.
The Lib Dem leader said that “wherever we go, the NHS is the biggest issue for the vast majority of people” – including voters in Scotland and rural parts of England.
“Traditionally ‘True Blue’ people are feeling they’re let down,” he added, which meant that a “chunk” of Tory voters were turning to his party instead.
When asked about the Liberal Democrats’ prospects at the next election, he said: “You’d be surprised how things are shaping up and this looks to me like a once-in-a-generation election.”
He added that there was a “very good chance” the party would become the third biggest in Westminster – which would mean unseating the SNP, currently with 43 seats to the Lib Dems’ 15.
As he approaches his eighth election, Sir Ed said the reaction on the doorsteps felt “similar” to when he first won his seat in Kingston and Surbiton in 1997, as one of the 46 Lib Dem MPs to enter Parliament.
Paddy Ashdown managed to secure the highest number of MPs for the Liberal Democrats since 1929 at the 1997 contest, almost doubling the number of Lib Dem MPs from 26 to 46.
“Back then, I remember being surprised by how many former Conservatives were voting for us. I mean, I won Kingston and Surbiton in ‘97 because Conservative voters switched to me,” Sir Ed said.
Although the party refuses to put an exact number on their target seats, when asked whether the Lib Dems could see a 1997-style moment, Sir Ed said: “It really has the potential”.
Sir Ed, the only serving Lib Dem MP to have served in the coalition government, batted away suggestions that his role in the Horizon scandal had cut through to voters – as “people are not raising it” on the doorsteps.
While serving as postal affairs minister between 2010 and 2012, Sir Ed originally turned down a request to meet Alan Bates – telling him he did not believe the meeting would “serve any useful purpose”.
He later met the campaigning sub-postmaster in October of that year, in the same month as holding three separate meetings with Post Office executives.
He said that the first meeting was proposed when he was 11 days into the role and he was advised by officials not to meet Mr Bates, but five months later became the first minister to do so.
When asked whether he believed that he had done everything he could to help sub-postmasters when in post, he said: “I’m sure everyone has tried to think ‘Could I have done anything else? Could I have found that?’ But the truth was it was just a conspiracy of lies.”
Commenting on the cancer rate figures, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Social Care said: “The NHS has seen and treated record numbers of cancer patients over the last two years and cancer is being diagnosed at an earlier stage, more often.
“In addition, thanks to innovations in technology and treatment, cancer screening programmes, and measures to help people quit smoking, survival rates are improving across almost all types of cancer.”
They pointed to the £2.3 billion invested into a network of local community diagnostic centres to improve cancer prevention, diagnosis and treatment.