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Athena Stylianou: “I want compensation for my trip
to Greece and the scans they lost.” |
Greek tragedy over woman's lost scans at the Royal Free
Woman who had to go private in Greece threatens to sue hospital over blunder
A DISABLED woman who flew to Greece to have her knee scanned
privately rather than wait for an NHS appointment is so furious
that the Royal Free in Hampstead lost the scans she is suing
the hospital.
Athena Stylianou, 65, was refused crucial MRI scans on her damaged
knee by consultants at the Royal Free Hospital in Pond Street
so she flew to the Greek capital Athens to get the job done
privately.
The €350 (£240) scans – which cost £800
in England – would have shown doctors whether she needed
an operation called an arthroscopy to alleviate a knee problem.
But three years after Ms Stylianou first complained of knee
pains, the hospital lost the scans leaving her back at square
one.
She has filed an official complaint and has spoken to her solicitor
about a legal challenge.
Ms Stylianou – who has moved into her son’s home in
the Vale of Health – described herself as “the unluckiest
woman in the world” after a life littered with horrific
accidents, one of which left her partially blinded after accidentally
rubbing toxic sap from a tropical plant into her eye that has
left her “half-paralysed” in her home.
She said: “The results were never diagnosed. I don’t
know what’s going on inside my knee as a result. I want
compensation for my trip to Greece and the scans they lost.
The hospital offered me another scan but what about the money
I have wasted?
“The scans were very high quality – done privately
in the best hospital in Greece.”
The hospital have investigated Ms Stylianou’s case through
their official NHS complaints procedure.
A hospital spokesperson said: “We apologise to Mrs Stylianou
for any distress caused by her lost MRI scans.
“We have offered to pay for replacement scans to be sent
over from Greece or to re-scan Mrs Stylianou here as a priority
case. However it would be inappropriate for the trust to use
public funds to reimburse the cost of her trip to Greece.”
“The waiting time for a non-urgent MRI scan at the Royal
Free is 24 weeks. From March 31 the government target for such
scans is 26 weeks.
“The decision about how urgent a patient’s needs are
is a purely clinical one and is made by the appropriate consultant.” |
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