NHS cancer misdiagnosis payouts hit £190m as delayed diagnoses claim lives

Darren Rosheski remembers the moment a consultant at Tameside hospital told his partner Helen Dutton that her symptoms were serious enough to warrant immediate investigation. The doctor had found a large lump in her colon and used the word "sinister." But that conversation came two years too late. By then, the cancer had already begun to spread.

Dutton first saw her GP in late 2016 with symptoms that should have raised alarms: blood in her stool, back pain, and changes to her bowel habits. The family doctor dismissed them as irritable bowel syndrome and haemorrhoids, offering no further tests or referrals. She was 35 years old, a finance manager and mother of one. The misdiagnosis would cost her everything.

Two years passed before Dutton returned to her GP surgery and saw a different doctor. This time she was referred to the hospital. The tests came quickly then—CT scans, MRI scans, a colonoscopy—and they revealed what should have been found in 2016: rectal cancer, already at stage 4. Three weeks later, doctors at Manchester's Christie cancer hospital confirmed the worst. Dutton underwent chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and surgery. In June 2020, she received the all-clear. But two months later, the cancer returned. She died in August 2021, aged 40.

Rosheski, a tradesman, sued the NHS through Irwin Mitchell solicitors. He and their daughter had depended entirely on Dutton's income. The case settled out of court in January for an undisclosed sum. But money, he says, is meaningless. "I would rather be poor and have Helen still around," he told those investigating the case. "A family has been destroyed by a doctor's negligence. I don't care about the compensation. I just wish she was here now." Both he and their daughter have struggled with serious mental health problems since her death. Rosheski has worked for only a month in the five years since, his diagnosed PTSD and complex grief making employment impossible.

Rosheski's story arrived as new figures revealed the scale of the problem across the NHS. Over the past five years, the health service in England has paid out nearly £190 million to settle 870 claims involving cancer misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis. The annual cost has nearly doubled, rising from £32 million in 2020-21 to £41.3 million in 2024-25. The average payout per case has climbed 20 percent, from roughly £200,000 to £241,705, suggesting that delays are causing increasingly severe harm.

Olivia Boschat, a medical negligence specialist at Bolt Burdon Kemp, obtained these figures through a freedom of information request to NHS Resolution, the agency handling medical negligence claims. She described the numbers as alarming. "Behind these figures lie heartbreak, tragedy and, in some cases, lives cut short—lives that could have been saved but, because of errors and negligence, were ended prematurely," she said. The difficulties patients face accessing urgent cancer testing are often central to these lawsuits. Some delays are unavoidable as doctors rule out other diagnoses, but others stem from overlooked symptoms, tests not carried out quickly enough, or results that are missed or ignored. The consequences can be catastrophic: cancers spread, requiring more aggressive treatment, and in the worst cases become untreatable.

The NHS has failed to meet its own targets for years. Since December 2020, it has not met the goal of starting urgent cancer treatment within 31 days of a patient and doctor agreeing on a plan. It has not met the target of starting treatment within two months of receiving a suspected urgent cancer referral since December 2015. Guy Forster, president of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers, noted that surviving victims often need additional care, therapies, and equipment if delays have caused mobility or continence problems. Many are unable to work for extended periods. For those who have lost loved ones, he said, "lives will be turned upside down, partners and their children may be without the practical, emotional and financial support on which they are reliant."

The Department of Health and Social Care acknowledged that mistakes happen and that early, accurate diagnosis is essential to effective cancer treatment. A spokesperson said the government is committed to addressing the problem, noting that 82,000 more people received timely diagnoses or all-clears in the last year compared to the year before. But the rising cost of settlements and the mounting human toll suggest the system remains broken in ways that compensation alone cannot fix.