The grieving parents of a man who died from cancer after he was denied face-to-face appointments 14 times are taking legal action against his GP surgery.
Jason Spreadbury was misdiagnosed for five months despite suffering excruciating pain in his side and eventually being reduced to getting about on crutches.
As his condition worsened, he was repeatedly refused in-person visits to Combs Ford Surgery near Stowmarket, Suffolk, with reasons given including the doctor was working from home.
He was also sent home from West Suffolk Hospital’s A&E department twice after doctors saw his GP’s diagnosis of sciatica – nerve pain in the lower back and leg – and decided not to give him a scan.
It was only when Mr Spreadbury found himself unable to walk indoors from his garden because of the chronic pain that he called 111 and finally saw a GP who referred him to A&E again.
Tests showed he had inoperable cancer in his kidneys which had spread to his brain and bones. He died, aged 55, just two months later.
Mr Spreadbury’s father, Robert, 71, told the Mail: ‘We’ve been robbed of our son. None of them did their jobs properly.
‘We are taking Combs Ford Surgery to court and we have reported the hospital to the [Parliamentary and Health Service] ombudsman.’
His mother, Josie, 75, added: ‘At every stage of his treatment, the system failed my son.
‘The heartbreak this has inflicted on us is unbearable and it makes me furious. It just brings home how dreadful the NHS is at this time.’
Mr Spreadbury, a health and safety manager for warehouses in Great Blakenham, first started experiencing pain in his side and back in early December 2024.
On December 30, he had a phone call with a nurse practitioner at Combs Ford Surgery and was advised to take co-codamol, a painkiller containing paracetamol and codeine.
By early February last year, the pain had got worse and he began calling on a regular basis to ask to be seen.
On February 18 he was given a phone consultation with a GP and diagnosed with sciatica before being offered physiotherapy and painkillers.
A month later his painkillers were increased after another phone call with a doctor.
Other attempts included March 31, when an in-person appointment was switched to yet another phone call as the doctor was working from home and April 14, when he was given more painkillers despite asking for a hospital referral.
His last request to see a GP was on April 22 when he was again spoken to on the phone and he reported he was now reduced to hobbling about with crutches. He was given more painkillers.
During this period, he went to West Suffolk Hospital A&E on April 13 but a doctor sent him home after concurring with the sciatica diagnosis, and again on April 16 when he was told no abnormality could be found.
He had been desperate to go on holiday to the Greek island of Rhodes with his parents and wife Michaela, 69, and went to see a private doctor on May 1 for an injection to relieve the pain.
But the doctor refused to give him the jab, saying he should get the underlying cause of the problem looked at.
Just a day later, Mr Spreadbury was at his home in Combs Ford when his frailty left him ‘stuck on a slope’ in his garden and his wife had to rush over with a chair for him to sit on.
They called 111 and he was finally allowed to see a GP who immediately referred him to West Suffolk Hospital where he was finally allowed to have a scan and given the devastating news that he only had a short time to live.
Mr Spreadbury was sent to Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge where, his parents said, nurses left him with an abscess on his hip for days that ‘exploded’ when he was sent to Felixstowe for physiotherapy.
He was able to spend a short period at home before being sent back to West Suffolk Hospital for end-of-life care on July 14. He died there three days later.
During his funeral in St Mary’s Church in Stowmarket on August 18, his father delivered a eulogy in which he said he was ‘very angry about the circumstances of Jason’s illness but that battle is for another day’.
Robert added today: ‘It’s with solicitors at the moment but it could be a couple of years before anything happens.
‘I want people to know now what’s happened.’
His wife added: ‘Combs Ford Surgery let my son down.
‘People have to know what happened to him. I’m sure he’s not the only one.’
The couple described their son as a ‘nice, smiley and quiet man’ who was ‘witty’, ‘brave’ and ‘happy right until the end’.
Earlier this week, Combs Ford Surgery was reported to have acknowledged that Mr Spreadbury had been ‘desperate’ for help and that it had failed him.
A spokesman said: ‘We are truly sorry that opportunities to bring Jason in for a face-to-face review were missed.’
In-person appointments would be offered to patients with similar symptoms in future, the spokesman added.
In a statement released today, the surgery apologised again but made no admissions of liability.
It said: ‘We have shared the findings of our review with Jason’s family and would encourage them to contact us directly if they have any further questions or would like to discuss his care further.’
Dr Ewen Cameron, chief executive of the West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust, offered ‘our sincere and deepest condolences to the family… for the tragic loss’ – although in a letter to the family he has claimed Mr Spreadbury’s symptoms ‘did not meet the criteria for MRI imaging’.
He said: ‘We acknowledge the devastating diagnosis he received and their distress and frustration that his illness was not diagnosed sooner and his outcomes more positive.
‘We take all complaints extremely seriously to ensure we improve patient care and experience.
‘We have carried out a thorough investigation into Mr Spreadbury’s care and treatment with us.
‘However, we would encourage Mr Spreadbury’s family to contact our patient advice and liaison service to raise any further concerns they have following our initial investigation into his care.’
