Personal injury law firm Novum, which has an office in Bath, has secured a £50,000 out-of-court settlement for a mother whose breast cancer should have been diagnosed sooner by specialists at the city’s Royal United Hospital.
The firm said the case was the latest example of the NHS Litigation Authority (NHSLA) refusing to accept liability in clinical negligence cases which were later found in favour of the patient. 
The Novum associate solicitor handling the case claimed such refusals had become “par for the course” for the NHSLA and its solicitors.
The woman from Wiltshire, who wishes to remain anonymous, had a history of breast cancer and had been successfully treated in 2000.
In 2009 she was referred by her GP to the RUH after complaining of a lump on the left hand side of her neck and a persistent dry cough.
But after undergoing tests she was told by specialists that she was suffering from weakness of the vocal chords.
Two and a half years later she went back to her GP complaining of tethering of the skin in the left hand side of her neck, an increase in the size of her left cervical lymph nodes and pins and needles in her left arm, in addition to continuing problems with her voice.
Following an urgent chest x-ray and ultrasound scan of her neck, she was referred to the RUH oncology team who confirmed that she was, in fact, suffering from breast cancer which had spread into her left shoulder and neck and involved the left brachial plexus, the network of nerve fibres that supplies the skin and muscles in the arms.
Extensive oncology treatment followed, including six gruelling courses of chemotherapy, which managed to halt the cancer’s spread and improved her symptoms in her left arm and the weakness in her voice, but she was left very distressed and disappointed the hospital had failed to diagnose her cancer sooner.
She made a complaint to the RUH which denied any failings in the standard of care provided. She then got in touch with Novum Law, which commissioned an independent clinical investigation.
It revealed that the MRI scan carried out in 2009 had failed to detect a number of abnormalities which, if reported, would have resulted in her cancer being diagnosed and treated, probably with hormone therapy rather than chemotherapy, in or around October 2009 instead of 22 months later in 2011.
Novum Law associate solicitor Daniel Green, pictured – an expert in clinical negligence compensation claims – said: “Despite our client’s experience, the defendant continued to deny that the failure of the radiologist to report the abnormalities in the MRI scan fell below an acceptable standard of care.
“This is disappointing but sadly, has become par for the course in clinical negligence cases, where the NHS Litigation Authority (NHSLA) and its defendant solicitors refuse point blank to accept liability.
“However, we are delighted that we achieved a very good settlement for our client which has compensated her for the 22-month delay in diagnosing her cancer She is over the moon that her ordeal is now over and she can draw a line under what has, understandably, been a very, very tough time in her life.
“It is her great hope that the Hospital Trust will have learned valuable lessons from her experience and will work to ensure that similar mistakes will not happen to other patients in the future.”
Novum Law, a sister business of M4 corridor law firm Thrings, specialises in serious injury, clinical negligence and asbestos-related disease claims. As well as Bath, it has offices in London, Bristol, Swindon, Salisbury, Plymouth, Reading, Southampton and the Isle of Wight.
