A CHILD from Ayrshire’s life-ending cancer might have been identified earlier if their case had been discussed at an earlier meeting, the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman has found.

However, they said that the outcome would not necessarily have been different.

In a report from the SPSO, the child’s mother, known as C complained that their adult child (A)’s dyslexia was not taken into account by doctors at NHS Ayrshire and Arran.

C also complained that A’s treatment was not up to scratch and that had better care been given, her child would have had a better chance of surviving. The final part of C’s complaint concerned fears that A’s condition had been misdiagnosed because of A’s age, as they were much younger than most people who get that type of cancer.

The SPSO report states that the health board accept they weren’t aware of A’s dyslexia, but added A was capable of making decisions about their care and treatment and a parent was also present too. That part of the complaint was not upheld.

The report goes on: “In terms of their care and treatment, we found that A had been difficult to diagnose because the options were limited for medical staff, due to A’s unwillingness to agree to treatment.

“However, it would have been appropriate for A’s case to have been discussed earlier at a multidisciplinary team meeting. This might have resulted in A’s cancer being identified sooner.

“However, this did not mean that the outcome for A would have been different, as the cancer was very aggressive, and it was unlikely that its progression could have been slowed or halted.”

NHS Ayrshire and Arran have been asked to apologise to C for not having held a multidisciplinary team meeting to discuss A’s case at the earliest opportunity.

It’s also been recommended that they “ensure clinicians have time to access multidisciplinary team meetings including all appropriate specialties to discuss unusual cases.”