{"id":555226,"date":"2026-06-26T12:51:23","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T12:51:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/555226\/"},"modified":"2026-06-26T12:51:23","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T12:51:23","slug":"some-patients-seriously-harmed-by-delays-in-cancer-treatment-in-north-inquiry-finds-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/555226\/","title":{"rendered":"Some patients \u2018seriously harmed\u2019 by delays in cancer treatment in North, inquiry finds \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some patients were \u201cseriously harmed\u201d by delays in their cancer diagnosis and treatment, a public inquiry into urology services at the Southern Health and Social Care Trust in Northern Ireland<\/a> has found.<\/p>\n

The scathing report centres on concerns linked to the work of retired surgeon Aidan O\u2019Brien, who was based at Craigavon Area Hospital in Co Armagh<\/a> for 28 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cIssues\u201d about his practice were \u201cknown for years\u201d but \u201cnever satisfactorily addressed\u201d, inquiry chair Christine Smith said on Wednesday following the report\u2019s publication.<\/p>\n

\u201cWarning signs were missed and opportunities to act were not taken soon enough,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The inquiry was ordered by former Stormont health minister Robin Swann<\/a> in 2020 due to \u201cserious concerns\u201d about the clinical practice of O\u2019Brien, a consultant urologist.<\/p>\n

He retired in July 2020.<\/p>\n

The Southern Trust is the second largest of Northern Ireland\u2019s five health trusts.<\/p>\n

Records of more than 1,000 patients under O\u2019Brien\u2019s care were reviewed relating to the period January 2019 to June 2020. Nine cases meet the threshold for \u2018serious adverse incident\u2019 (SAI) reviews. <\/p>\n

Bladder, prostate and renal cancer patients were among those affected.<\/p>\n

It emerged there were issues around treatment delays for surgery patients.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien was a \u201cskilled surgeon\u201d who \u201cdid not set out to cause harm\u201d but the trust failed to recognise he was a \u201cdoctor in difficulty and failed to manage him appropriately\u201d, according to the inquiry.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, this report is not simply about one doctor,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt highlights wider systemic failings, where risks were not escalated, concerns were not acted upon, and opportunities to prevent harm were missed across the trust.\u201d<\/p>\n

Undue deference to senior doctors and failures in medical leadership were among weaknesses identified in the trust\u2019s governance, leadership and culture.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt its heart, this report is about patients who were badly let down. They faced delays in diagnosis and treatment, including cancer care, poor communication, and too often they were left without the clear, high-quality, timely interventions they should have expected,\u201d added Smith.<\/p>\n

The way O\u2019Brien carried out his practice and his follow-up processes \u201cwere unsafe\u201d.<\/p>\n

Delayed patient investigation reports, non-dictation of letters, poor record keeping and retention of notes outside the hospital by the surgeon were among the catalogue of failings identified.<\/p>\n

Systemic failures, weak governance, poor oversight and underdeveloped leadership created \u201cconditions in which patients were seriously harmed\u201d, the inquiry chair said.<\/p>\n

During the inquiry hearings, a doctor gave evidence claiming O\u2019Brien \u201cqueue jumped\u201d private patients.<\/p>\n

Fee-paying patients were \u201cbumped to the top of the list\u201d while NHS patients on waiting lists were \u201csilently suffering\u201d at home, according to urologist Mark Haynes.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien denied this allegation.<\/p>\n

Fear prevented Haynes from personally confronting the surgeon, the inquiry heard.<\/p>\n

The inquiry report outlines delays experienced by one of O\u2019Brien\u2019s NHS patients following a delayed bladder cancer diagnosis.<\/p>\n

Patient 18, a man in his early 70s, described the \u201cdifficulty\u201d he had in getting an appointment with O\u2019Brien after making repeated calls to his secretary.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can remember saying to [my wife], \u2018Well, how does he know I\u2019m not dying of cancer?\u2019 But we told him that and he produced his private card. Now we accepted it out of politeness but I didn\u2019t do anything about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Months before Swann ordered the inquiry, a confidential trust review revealed O\u2019Brien had more than 700 \u201cmissing\u201d GP letters in his filing cabinet in 2016. <\/p>\n

The letters contained referrals for 30 \u201cred flag\u201d patients, four of whom were subsequently diagnosed with prostate cancer.<\/p>\n

The leaked trust review said concerns about O\u2019Brien\u2019s \u201cpersistent\u201d failure to triage GP referral patients dated back \u201capproximately 25 years\u201d, with O\u2019Brien describing the triage process as \u201ctoo time-consuming\u201d.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, the trust\u2019s medical director apologised to patients and their families.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe care provided by the trust fell below what was acceptable and that, in some cases this caused distress or contributed to harm,\u201d said Stephen Austin.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the beginning, we viewed this inquiry as an opportunity to identify, reflect upon and be candid about our failings and use it as an opportunity to improve.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is the second public inquiry published into healthcare failings in Northern Ireland in six days, following the release of a damning report into the abuse of vulnerable patients by staff at Muckamore Abbey Hospital in Co Antrim.<\/p>\n

Muckamore was a regional facility for adults with serious learning difficulties and the report found \u201cprofound and deeply troubling\u201d care failures.<\/p>\n

Stormont health minister Mike Nesbitt said: \u201cFor the second time in less than a working week I find myself having to offer an unconditional apology for something that has gone incredible badly wrong in healthcare delivery.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was failure of monumental size.\u201d<\/p>\n

The urology inquiry said improvements had been made including changes within the trust and work led by the department of health.<\/p>\n

However, it said further sustained and transformational change was required<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Some patients were \u201cseriously harmed\u201d by delays in their cancer diagnosis and treatment, a public inquiry into urology…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":555227,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[275],"tags":[10613,110,18,135,475,474,19,17,954,237599],"class_list":["post-555226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-armagh","tag-cancer","tag-eire","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-northern-ireland","tag-robin-swann"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116816503998742178","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=555226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555226\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/555227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=555226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=555226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=555226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}