Terminally-ill pensioner claims Luton and Dunstable hospital failed to spot lung cancer

A pensioner from Dunstable has complained to Bedfordshire NHS Trust claiming doctors at the Luton and Dunstable NHS University Hospital failed to spot his lung cancer, which is now terminal.

But the hospital trust says it is “confident” that an internal review of his care found no clinical concerns.

Enrico Marchetto, 70, was admitted to the hospital in January 2021. At the time, he was considered at high risk for getting cancer after already surviving prostate cancer in 2013.

He said: “I am in the final stage, stage four, very severe COPD and an ex-smoker.”

Mr Marchetto had Covid-19 and was given an X-ray, despite asking for a CT scan. He said: “My life expectancy was 10 years before I became a patient, I am now living my last three months sitting down, waiting to die.”

David Carter, chief executive officer at Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said: “It was very sad to hear of Mr Marchetto’s cancer diagnosis and we understand how incredibly difficult this is for him and his family. We take all concerns raised about the services we provide seriously and investigate all issues raised to us.

“As an organisation, we do have a duty to ensure that we maintain patient confidentiality at all times and therefore we are unable to comment in great detail about individual patient cases.

"We are confident that the internal review of Mr Marchetto's case found no clinical concerns with the care delivered to him at the Luton and Dunstable University Hospital. We continue to be in direct contact with Mr Marchetto in addressing the points he has raised with us.”

Mr Marchetto complained to the NHS trust about doctors and staff allegedly missing his tumour, which is now the size of a grapefruit. He said: "They dismissed me."

In 2022, he was hospitalised again with severe shortness of breath. and an X-ray revealed that he had terminal lung cancer.

He explained: "They put me on palliative care and a course of immunotherapy, but unfortunately, it didn’t work and it didn’t manage to stop the cancer growing. So now I am just waiting to die. From having no cancer at all to terminal cancer, you can imagine the shock. If they had found the cancer in January 2021, I wouldn't be dying."