A MAN missed out on the chance to extend his life by six months because doctors failed to diagnose him with cancer.

A report, released by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, revealed the patient, referred to as Mr A, was too ill to undergo chemotherapy because it took doctors at Basildon Hospital 50 days longer than expected to discover he had bladder cancer.

By the time he was diagnosed, the disease had spread to other parts of his body.

Basildon Hospital admitted a catalogue of failings and handed his wife, Mrs A, £3,000 compensation.

Bosses also drew up an action plan to show they were learning from their mistakes in the wake of the man’s death in May this year.

Mr A was first admitted to the hospital, in Nethermayne, at the end of 2013 with large clots of blood in his urine, but was sent home after his symptoms settled.

Doctors told the patient further tests were needed, but he remained on a waiting list for five weeks.

He returned to hospital the following monthwith serious kidney failure, but doctors did not carry out vital tests until early this year.

Scans showed a large and aggressive tumour in his bladder, but by this point Mr A was too unwell to try chemotherapy and suffered a painful death.

An investigation by the Ombudsman, which was published yesterday found the kidney failure could have been prevented if tests had been carried out within a few days of his initial hospital visit.

A spokesman said: “Mr A suffered painful, unnecessary treatment for kidney failure as a result. Also, he lost the chance to have chemotherapy that would have extended his life by about six months.

“Mrs A suffered distress from watching her husband undergo painful treatment, and she was denied six months additional time with him.”

A spokesman for Basildon Hospital said: “We accept the findings of the Ombudsman and have apologised sincerely to Mrs A.

“On both occasions we did not deliver the high standards of care we would expect from our staff.

“We want to hear when people are not happy with the services we provide and are determined to understand and learn from complaints.

“Our aim is to ensure that our patients and their carers feel confident that we have investigated their concerns thoroughly and acted upon them.

“Following both of these cases we implemented changes to the way we work to try to ensure we never make the same mistakes again.”