Havant mum-of-four takes legal action after being on a hospital waiting list for seven months before cancer diagnosis

Jody Daltry from Havant said she knew something wasn’t right when she was left in excruciating pain, no longer having menstrual periods and also noticed she was having strange discharge.

After a GP at the Homewell Practice referred her to Queen Alexandra Hospital in Cosham in September 2018, the SSE office worker was told she would need an examination and biopsy to further investigate.

In January last year her GP wrote to the hospital asking if her case could be brought forward.

However, the trust was unable to bring forward Jody’s appointment because its theatre list was oversubscribed

Nine months after her GP referral and seven months after her first hospital appointment, Jody underwent an examination and biopsy which identified she had cervical cancer.

The 45-year-old said: ‘Nothing prepares you for the word cancer. My head was spinning and I couldn’t take it in at first.

‘Having to wait that long for my biopsy was worrying. My family and friends were telling me not to worry but it was difficult not to. It seemed an awful long time to have to wait.’

Following her diagnosis Jody underwent chemotherapy, five weeks of radiotherapy and brachytherapy, a treatment where rods containing a high dose of radiation are placed directly into the body.

She is currently waiting for news of the effectiveness of her treatment.

Jody, who is married to Darren, 39, has instructed expert medical negligence lawyers at Irwin Mitchell to investigate her care.

Nicole Causey, legal expert at Irwin Mitchell representing Jody said: ‘Concerns were raised about Jody’s case but unfortunately the hospital was unable to bring forward her appointment because of how oversubscribed its theatre was. This raises important questions as to whether the NHS is receiving the level of funding it requires to ensure patients can receive the best possible care and support.

‘Understandably Jody is anxious about what happened to her and whether the outcome would have been different if her biopsy had been taken sooner.’

This week marks Cervical Cancer Prevention Week and Jody, who was born in Minnesota, USA, wanted to share her story to help raise awareness of the signs of the disease.

She added: ‘While I am hopeful that the future is looking brighter, I still deserve to know whether more could have been done to diagnose my cancer sooner.

‘I just hope that by speaking out others become more aware of the symptoms and feel confident to seek medical advice. It’s also important that people are aware of the help and support that’s available if they are diagnosed.’

Dr John Knighton, medical director at Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust, said: ‘In 2018/19 we delivered all of our cancer standards. In 2019/20 we have delivered seven out of the eight cancer standards consistently to date and we are expecting to deliver the eighth standard for the remaining part of this financial year.

‘While we cannot comment on individual cases, any individual incident is rigorously investigated and any learning applied across the organisation to ensure that we are continually improving the care we provide for our patients. We have focused in particular on improving the way we respond to incidents and on involving patients in this process from an early stage over the course of the last year.’