Watchdog Orders Apology and Overhaul After Essex Cancer Treatment Delays

Overview

• The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman ordered Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust to apologise to the family and recommended a review of cancer waiting times with concrete improvements.
• Mrs S’s pathway exceeded national standards, with a 49‑day wait for diagnosis and 81 days to treatment against NHS targets of 28 and 62 days.
• The watchdog said treatment should have started by 3 April 2023, when Mrs S remained well enough for chemotherapy; she died later that year after her condition deteriorated.
• The trust apologised and said it has begun an integrated improvement plan, including new technology to allocate resources, extra clinics and theatre scheduling, and a review of diagnostic capacity.
• Performance against the 62‑day treatment standard remained low at 47.6% in February 2023 and about 47% in October 2025, with the investigation also citing an unsafe discharge, poor palliative care coordination, and delays in draining ascites that caused avoidable distress.