Man died after NHS failure

CANCER 'RED FLAG' WAS MISSED BY TRUST AFTER LUNG SCAN

- By SAM VOLPE Reporter

A ROWLANDS Gill man died less than two years after an NHS trust failed to follow up after finding cancer.

A coroner has now aired concerns that the issues which led to the heartbreaking death of John James Johnson, known as Jim, who died on November 22, 2023, could be “national problems”.

He had lung cancer, but devastatingly it had been spotted on a scan more than a year earlier and was not acted upon.

After a fall at his home in April 2022, during a hospital admission at the Queen Elizabeth in Gateshead, he underwent a chest X-ray.

Then despite a radiographer “red flagging” the scan after spotting a “suspicious” lesion on his lung, this was not followed up.

Previously, the Gateshead Health NHS Trust said it was “deeply sorry” to Jim's family for pain and distress caused.

Last month, following an inquest, Gateshead coroner James Thompson issued a document known as a “prevention of future deaths notice” (PFD) to the Department of Health and Social Care - as he believes the record-keeping issues that contributed to Jim’s death could be present elsewhere in the country.