Decision Report 201909588

Summary

Mrs C, an advice and support worker, complained to the board on behalf of her client (Mr A) about treatment which Mr A received at Raigmore Hospital. Mr A was diagnosed with bowel cancer following a positive bowel screen and endoscopy. Mr A underwent surgery to remove the tumour. Initially, keyhole surgery was planned but during the procedure the surgeon was unable to locate the tumour and the operation was changed to full surgery. Mr A developed an infection in his abdomen following the surgery and had to be taken back to theatre. Mr A remained in hospital for a number of weeks and was subsequently discharged home with a stoma and wound bag. Mr A wished to know what went wrong with his care and treatment.

We took independent advice from a consultant surgeon. We found that there were no concerns about the standard of treatment which Mr A received. Initially, it was appropriate to consider keyhole surgery based on the scan results but when the surgery commenced it was noticed that the tumour was in a different position. It was then appropriate to proceed to open surgery, which was completed appropriately with no issues. However, Mr A subsequently developed an infection, which is recognised complication of surgery rather than an indication that the surgery was not performed appropriately. We did not uphold the complaint.