Cancer patient wrongly dismissed as refusing test

A coroner has raised serious concerns after medical professionals failed to offer a woman a test which could have diagnosed her cancer condition sooner.

Sunderland coroner Abigail Combes has written to NHS England following an inquest for Marie Bell, who died due to complications during bowel surgery to remove a cancerous mass.

She said Bell was dismissed as having declined a colonoscopy which could have identified the mass months earlier, making surgery less complex. Instead, she had been unable to get into the position required for the test due to hip problems.

NHS England said it had systems in place to offer alternative tests to colonoscopy and was working on a review with regional trusts.

Combes' letter to the NHS forms part of a prevention of future deaths report - a document coroners use to raise concerns following an inquest.

The report, which was published this week, showed Bell had been referred for the colonoscopy in February 2025, four months before her death.

Combes said: "There is no evidence that an alternative, such as a CT scan, was offered which would have offered an earlier diagnosis."

The coroner said while the error in the surgery was not caused by the delay in Bell's diagnosis, she feared there would be cases in which this could be the case.

She said: "Where one means of investigation is not suitable for a patient due to comorbidities or conditions this does not mean that the patient is declining all investigations and an alternative should be explored."

In its response to the coroner, NHS England outlined the current guidelines for bowel cancer screening and said regional trusts were being asked for a review of criteria for patients unable to undergo colonoscopy.

Dr Shaz Wahid, executive medical director at South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust, which carried out Bell's surgeries, said: "Whilst the inquest identified no criticism of her care, we always strive to learn by reviewing such events in order to identify any way in which we can improve our services."

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