More than 800 patients suspected of having cancer have been wrongly discharged due to administrative errors.
For the past three years, patients urgently referred to West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust with suspected cancer have been automatically removed from waiting lists after failing to attend appointments.
The mass blunder has affected 810 patients, all of whom had been referred by their GPs to hospitals in Hemel Hempstead, Watford and St Albans.
Two managers at the Trust have been suspended and more than 120 cases are now being reviewed. The failure is thought to have delayed the care of hundreds of patients, and may have contributed to the death of one patient.
Local MPs have expressed alarm at these “tragic consequences”, stating that “the Trust’s failure to follow the correct administrative process for urgent referrals is unacceptable and deeply wrong.”
Samantha Jones, the Trust’s chief executive, said: “It is absolutely clear that the Trust was not always following the correct administrative processes for these patients and we let them down.”
The revelations follow a number of similar scandals relating to NHS waiting times. Police are currently investigating Colchester Hospital University NHS Trust, where staff were apparently bullied into falsifying waiting time records.
The National Audit Office also recently discovered that one in four hospitals is recording false waiting times.
Last year West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust was named among 16 hospitals in England with higher than expected death rates.
Have you been let down by delayed cancer care?
If your health has been affected because of delayed cancer care, please get in touch with us today to discuss your options. If you have been the victim of medical negligence, you will be entitled to pursue a claim for compensation.
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