"Scan refused now on an uncertain pathway"

My step dad has been suffering from ando pain with a burning sensation and inability to swallow anything. This has been going on for weeks and the weight has been slowly dropping off him as diets of soups only get people so far.

Several trips back and forth to the GP - being told it’s nothing but acid reflux to simply up the dose of omeprazole to the maximum dose and this should help.  Again, the pain continued to worsen until he could no longer stand it and took himself to A&E due to the agony and inability to eat even soft foods.

Whilst there had some tests done which were fine but the consultant was not satisfied as it was evident the pain he was in and wanted to keep him in for a CT scan - happy with the plan he slept on a trolley in A&E overnight with no updates from staff and no analgesia as he thought he had a good plan moving forward.

Cut to the next day awaiting the scan and he’s handed discharge meds and told to go home as the radiographer was not doing his scan as it’s not urgent enough. Poor man got sent home on exactly what he had been on already with still not being able to eat or drink at times.

Now fast forward three weeks from his A&E attendance - an endoscopy and CT later and we are now going down the cancer pathway due to an obstruction found in his oesophagus. Naturally we are all horrified and disgusted at the lack of care he has had.

The man has lost even more weight from his first attendance to the hospital which the doctors are now saying he needs to try up his weight due to the potential treatment plans he is now facing - a challenge as the eating and drinking has not really improved at all since the first attendance.

We all can’t help but feel the refusal of the first sets of scans by the radiographer has delayed his potential care plan and made his overall wellbeing worse with the weight loss. We felt so torn by our whole experience with one consultant advocating the need for the scan to then being dismissed home to effectively suck it up with the radiographer dismissing his concerns as not urgent - the man has been paying national insurance his whole life to being let down by the system when he needed it is a total kick in the teeth. 

The whole clinical picture of his attendance was ignored and instead of treating the patient they treated the protocol and now the patient's care has been delayed by weeks. Being told what we face now is going to be tough and we need to get the sugar and calories into him fast for treatment is scary and daunting and we cannot help but feel if our concerns had been taken seriously earlier then we wouldn’t be even more weight down.

My family are still to lodge a formal complaint due to this clear mismanagement of care, but I could not sit back and not highlight the importance in advocating for your loved ones, as no one else will.