Patient died and hundreds suffered 'lasting harm' due to Derby radiologist's misread scans

A patient died and “lasting, real harm” was caused to more than 100 people due to poor reading of heart scans by a former Derby doctor over seven years.

On top of this, more than 361 patients encountered potential low harm and a further 379 patients faced failures over their cardiac scans.

The University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust has issued an “unreserved apology” for the issues, detailing “deep regret” and saying it is “very sorry this has happened”, pointing to an absence of oversight and its own policy shortfalls.

Its report, which was due to be published last year, has now been disclosed ahead of a trust board meeting next week.

This comes a year after the Local Democracy Reporting Service exclusively revealed that a review of 1,224 cases linked to one radiologist was under way, including medical examiner deep-dives into whether failures over cardiac MRI scans had played a part in the deaths of 101 patients.

This wide review includes the “potential misdiagnoses or delay in diagnosis” for hundreds of patients over seven years.

The radiologist in question has not been named and had already left the trust as of last September. He could not be reached for comment.

The Derby and Burton hospital trust’s full report confirms that one of the patients in the review, who has since died, suffered “severe harm” due to the missed diagnosis of a heart condition.

This, the trust says, was linked to the misreporting of a cardiac scan, which contributed to their health subsequently deteriorating until their death.

The report says a key theme of misdiagnosis was cases related to ARVC (arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy), which require annual checkup scans, genetic testing and family screening, which will not have been carried out, with potentially affected relatives going unassessed.

Another theme was patients having a diagnosis changed from myocarditis to myocardial infarction and vice versa, the report said.

A total of 176 patients in the 1,224-case review had died as of the investigation starting, with the medical examiner asked to assess 101 of these cases to see if the cardiac MRI had played a part in their deaths.

In these 101 cases, the trust states it was not able to assess other ailments which may have been caused by the misreporting of the heart scans or possible other health impacts or limitations on quality of life caused by the heart conditions that could have been treated via accurate scans.

Of those 101 cases, 48 had a “potential cardiac cause of death”, with three of those cases showing “possible influence” on the death of patients.

In eight cases there was “insufficient data” to reach a conclusion, including insufficient clinical notes, with the “circumstances of death not clear”.

Following this, a further post-mortem took place into the three cases, finding “possible influence”, with officials saying two patients suffered no harm as a result of the MRI discrepancy, but that one patient did suffer severe harm due to the missed diagnosis.

As part of the 1,224-case review, 120 patients were recalled for further investigations.

The trust said three patients were proven to have suffered “moderate harm”, while others suffered “real harm” which “may be lasting”.

Its report details that of the 120 patients, 48 recalled were found to have suffered low harm.