THE family of a cancer patient who said Colchester hospital’s negligence killed him have had their complaint partially upheld by top-level NHS watchdogs.

Colchester Hospital University NHS Foundation Trust was told by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) a fall, which happened while the patient was at the general hospital, was preventable.

The man was suffering from bowel cancer and had a hernia but was not well enough to be operated on.

He fell in a ward and became a palliative patient.

An investigation by the trust found the fall had been preventable.

The complaint was partially upheld by the PHSO.

It found the patient’s lying and standing blood pressure should have been taken to establish the risk of postural hypotension (and, therefore, falls) and his medication should have been reviewed by a doctor.

However, it could not be established that these failures caused the fall or that completing those actions would have prevented it.

The PHSO said the trust’s response to the complaint provided good explanations and implemented changes - but failed to explain adequately how these would be monitored in the future.

The PHSO felt the family should have been given more visiting rights and experienced “unnecessary distress” as a result, and there was inadequate communication from a nurse after the patient died.

The trust was ordered to pay the family £500 compensation caused by the failings in visiting and communication.

The case was one of two formal investigations detailed in an annual report of complaints spanning a year from April 2015.

The other complaint, also partially upheld by the PHSO, was about a patient who was told by a consultant she had terminal cancer in an “unsympathetic manner”.

He did not realise it was the first time she had been given the news.

Another strand to the complaint was about the patient and her husband hearing a “loud crack” when she turned in bed in the ward.

She was given morphine for pain relief but was later found to have fractured her thighbone.

An X-ray confirming this was not ordered for more than 24 hours and took place four days later.

The PHSO said the care and treatment given in respect of the fracture was insufficient.

It said the way the bad news was broken to the patient was not within recognised quality standards but the trust had already addressed it.

Tammy Diles, the trust's head of patient experience, said: "We welcome these [findings] because it is learning.

"If we have failed the two patients we apologise to them but it is about disseminating information through the organisation to make sure it doesn't happen again."

Since being in her role since last November, Ms Diles said the PALS (The Patient Advice and Liaison Service) office had been relocated to the general hospital's main lobby so it was "at the heart of the hospital" for patients.

Staffing levels in the PALS department have also increased.

Letters to complainants also contain her mobile number.

Ms Diles added: "I go around the wards every day and say 'how are you, how are you being treated, how are you feeling?

"We are more responsive than we have ever been."

For the year spanning from April 2015, there were 802 complaints made to the trust - 230 fewer than the previous year.

A total of 162 complaints were upheld by the trust out of 963.

Of these four were partially upheld by the PHSO and one was upheld.