WHEN James Docherty's daughter heard he had not had his cancer check-up she started making phone calls.

Her father, a retired steel worker from Airdrie in Lanarkshire, had had an operation to remove a tumour from his bowel and was supposed to be seen around every six months.

What neither of them knew when Mr Docherty finally went in for that follow-up appointment, was that he would be told a scan - taken more than a year earlier - showed it was likely his cancer had spread to his liver and his lungs.

Mr Docherty died the following summer. Now, in the wake of an investigation by the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman into what went wrong, his daughter Catherine Oliphant has spoken out for the first time.

Mrs Oliphant, one of Mr Docherty's five children, said she was "devastated and angry" when she discovered the NHS knew her father's cancer had spread in July 2012, but did nothing for more than a year.

She said: "We were most worried that more than a year had passed. My thought was if that had been caught a year and a half ago would it have been treatable or operable? And also, how could it get missed?"

Mr Docherty, who was 75 when he died, was given chemotherapy in late 2013 after his diagnosis came to light. His health, including damage to his heart from an earlier heart attack, affected his treatment options.

The ombudsman found his "prognosis may not have been changed by earlier treatment" but said "even if there was no treatment to cure his cancer at that time, being told of the results more than a year prior to when he actually found out would have given him and his family more time to know that he was terminally ill and to plan accordingly".

Mrs Oliphant said if her father had known he was dying he may have done more, even travelled, adding: "Who knows? He isn't here to ask."

Her over-riding concern is that improvements are made so the same mistake is not repeated.

She said: "I had to go and chase appointments for my dad a lot of the time. There are other people out there who have absolutely no-one to do that for them."

Even when Mr Docherty had been seen, and the scan results discussed, Mrs Oliphant said she had to chase Monklands Hospital - where he was being treated - for a follow-up scan and those results. The ombudsman branded this "unacceptable".

The investigation could not pinpoint exactly why the scan first showing the spreading cancer was ignored for so long - either Mr Docherty's consultant was not informed about it or the consultant's team failed to act when they were notified.

The report raised concern about NHS Lanarkshire's own inquiry into what went wrong and their failure to offer the family a "meaningful apology". The ombudsman expressed concern that the same situation "could arise again" and listed a number of recommendations including ensuring there is "a robust system in place for notifying referring clinicians of urgent and unexpected results".

Irene Barkby, director of nursing, midwifery and allied health professions, said: “It is very clear from this report that we fell below the standards of care any patient should expect from NHS Lanarkshire. We have written to the complainant directly to apologise for the unacceptable delays her father experienced.

“We fully accept the ombudsman’s recommendations and will ensure action is taken to address the issues that have been raised.

"It is also important that the lessons learned are shared, not just with the staff directly involved in this case, but with staff throughout Lanarkshire so that similar errors do not occur in the future, and we will be doing this through our clinical governance arrangements."