The NHS has admitted a second massive data loss with over 162,000 documents going missing, on top of 702,000 documents that are already known to have been lost in February 2017.
The revelation that even more records related to patients’ health have been lost came to light during a parliamentary inquiry into the loss of the original 702,000 documents. NHS managers have now admitted the loss of a further two tranches of missing medical papers, which has left MPs “dumbstruck”.
The latest lost documents are thought to include child protection notes treatment records and plans, drug plans and the results of various kinds of diagnostic tests. it is not yet known if the patients involved are at risk.
The National Audit Office found that NHS Shared Business Services (SBS), (the firm co-owned by the government that lost the documents) first recognised in January 2014 that patients may have come to harm as a result of what was at the time a fast-rising backlog of undelivered paperwork. However, despite staff raising concerns, the firm did not alert the department or NHS England until March last year – over two years later. SBS was then “obstructive and unhelpful” to NHS England in the inquiry it then instigated, the NAO found.
During an evidence session of the Commons public accounts committee, which is investigating the original data loss in February, Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, a Conservative committee member, said: “You tell us the bombshell that whilst on a trawl of local trusts you find another 12,000 and then you found another 150,000 [missing] items….Until you have sifted through them, you don’t know if there is a serious case out there where someone is dying because the notes haven’t been transferred…”
An NHS England spokesperson said: “These new cases have come to light as a result of our determination to leave no stone unturned and all these documents will be returned to GPs for clinical review where needed within the next 10 weeks. People should be reassured that despite reviewing over 97% of the records that SBS failed to process not a single case of patient harm has been identified.”
A specialist clinical negligence solicitor with the law firm, Sydney Mitchell, said, “This is another shocking revelation in what is already a very disturbing state of affairs for the NHS. Nearly a million patient documents have been lost, which has the potential to compromise the safety of thousands of patients. It is entirely feasible that this patients will come to harm as a result of this blunder, and the NHS must work quickly to rectify their mistakes to protect the public.”
If you are concerned by the content of this story or wish to discuss the medical treatment that you have received, please contact a member of the Personal Injury team on 0808 166 8827.
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