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Call for action plan after Walsall kidney blunder

A health watchdog is seeking reassurances from a health trust that lessons have been learned following a hospital blunder which saw doctors remove a patient's kidney by mistake when she should have been receiving chemotherapy.

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The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman revealed last week that the patient at Walsall Manor should have received chemotherapy for ovarian cancer, but a misdiagnosis led to her having a kidney removed as doctors believed she had kidney cancer.

She then suffered with bowel infections and damage for the final 20 months of her life.

Healthwatch Walsall, which represents the public on healthcare issues, said it had also asked the Trust to share its action plan to ensure it was comprehensive and was being robustly followed.

Bosses said they were 'deeply concerned' to learn of the unfortunate case of misdiagnosis and mistreatment of the patient.

Richard Przybylko, joint chairman for Healthwatch Walsall, said: "We need some strong assurances from Walsall Healthcare Trust that it has indeed learned lessons from this tragedy and that sufficient actions have been taken to improve the way in which diagnosis is made."

Chiefs at Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust have paid out £4,000 to the patient's family and apologised for care given.

Amir Khan, medical director at Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust, apologised for the level of care provided and said an action plan had been submitted to the ombudsman. This was one of a series of failings revealed at hospitals across the country.

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