英国NHS在过去五年因癌症误诊或诊疗延误共赔付870起医疗事故诉讼，总额接近1.9亿英镑 [1]。平均赔偿金在此期间从2020/21财年的19.9万英镑上升至2024/25财年的24.1705万英镑，增长幅度达20% [1]。
35岁患者Helen Dutton成为这一问题的典型受害者。她在2016年末因肠癌症状初次就医时被全科医生误诊为肠易激综合征和痔疮，导致治疗延误两年，直到2018年才被确诊为晚期直肠癌（第4阶段） [1]。Dutton于2020年6月获得缓解，但仅两个月后癌症复发，最终于2021年8月去世，终年40岁 [1]。
Dutton的伴侣Darren Rosheski获得保密金额赔偿，但他对金钱的补偿表示失望。Rosheski说："我宁愿贫穷也要Helen还活着。一个家庭被医生的过失摧毁了。我不在乎赔偿。我只希望她还在这里。" [1] 自Dutton去世五年来，Rosheski和他们的女儿均患有严重心理健康问题，其中包括创伤后应激障碍和复杂性悲伤的诊断 [1]。
此外，NHS未能达成在患者与医生同意治疗计划后31天内开始急症癌症治疗的目标，自2020年12月以来一直未能达成 [1]。医院在接收可疑急症癌症转诊后两个月内开始治疗的目标同样未达成，这一情况自2015年12月以来便持续存在 [1]。
England's National Health Service has paid out settlements totaling nearly £190 million across 870 medical negligence cases involving cancer misdiagnosis or delayed treatment over the past five years [1]. The average compensation per case has risen by 20 percent, climbing from £199,000 in 2020/21 to £241,705 in 2024/25 [1].
Helen Dutton, 35 at the time of her initial consultation, was misdiagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome and hemorrhoids when she first sought medical care at the end of 2016 for symptoms that were later identified as bowel cancer [1]. The correct diagnosis of stage 4 rectal cancer did not come until 2018, marking a two-year delay in treatment [1]. Dutton achieved remission in June 2020, only for her cancer to return two months later [1]. She died in August 2021 at the age of 40 [1].
Her partner, Darren Rosheski, received a confidential settlement but expressed that no financial compensation could remedy the loss [1]. "I would rather be poor than have Helen gone," Rosheski stated [1]. "A family has been destroyed by a doctor's mistake. I don't care about compensation. I just wish she was still here" [1].
Both Rosheski and his daughter have experienced severe mental health complications in the five years since Dutton's death, with diagnoses of post-traumatic stress disorder and complicated grief [1].
The NHS has consistently failed to meet treatment targets, including the goal of beginning urgent cancer treatment within 31 days of a patient and doctor agreeing on a treatment plan—a target unmet since December 2020 [1]. The service has also failed to achieve the objective of initiating treatment within two months of hospital receipt of a suspected urgent cancer referral, a target missed continuously since December 2015 [1].