Hospital trust apologises as police force investigates man's death from tumour

A troubled NHS trust has apologised to the family of a man who died after a series of potentially fatal delays to treat a tumour, in a case that is being investigated by police as possible corporate manslaughter.

- Matthew Weaver

Richard Harris, 71, died last July after a series of errors in the neurosurgery department at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton, which is part of University Hospitals Sussex NHS foundation trust (UHSussex).

The trust admitted that Harris was "lost to follow-up" when the hospital repeatedly failed to monitor a tumour in his nervous system, or operate on it, as doctors recommended.

An internal review of Harris's care found that doctors failed to arrange a routine MRI scan for him when he was first urgently referred to neurosurgery in 2017. Harris, who was fit and a regular swimmer, only received a scan when he contacted the department again in 2019.

The scan picked up a benign schwannoma tumour, which a multidisciplinary team concluded would require regular monitoring every six months. They also said "surgical intervention should be advised", the review found.

But no surgery was arranged. And the required follow-up scans were postponed and cancelled at a time when internal whistleblowers expressed alarm about high cancellation rates, and repeated and allegedly dangerous failures to follow up patients under the trust's care.