This is how cr*p the NHS adminstration is. They need a good shaking out and re-organisation.

My Mum was discharged from Hospital and sent home with someone else's medication. She arrived home around 8pm, I was in her flat to sort her out and settled her in. I opened her bag of meds to fined they were not hers.
I phoned the ward directed and spoke to the Night Sister in charge who was profoundly apologetic. Luckily Mum had taken her meds before she left the ward so it was OK over night. The Ward sister on her way home the next morning swung by hers and gave mum the correct meds and took this other persons meds away.

I was working in the hospital the following day so I phoned PALs and put in a concern /complaint.
Mum was lucky I noticed quickly but the other patient who should have those Meds might not have had someone to check for them. Fortunately, this patient was still on the ward over night.
Within 15 mins the Ward sister on days phoned me direct apologising.

It sounds incredibly draining. I had a similar mess a while ago when my hospital kept mixing my scans with someone else and it took days to get anyone to listen. What helped was giving my NHS number straight away and asking for the data protection officer rather than the general inbox. The reply was slow, but it finally pushed things to the right team.

You did everything you could on your side. Sending it to the ICO and your MP makes sense, because repeated mix ups with another person’s records are a real breach. They usually move faster once an external body is watching.

nanna8

I used to be the community rep on a hospital board and once a month they would review all the ‘mistakes’ or negative events and comments that had come in. They would decide on action to prevent things reoccurring.They were very rigorous about it. This was in the public system. It was pointed out to me that the private system had no such checks and balances - a good argument against private health care for me! Private = much better food, rooms etc but if the standard of care is unmonitored that is a worry.

errrm...there is another way to look at that - ie maybe mess-ups rarely happen in the private sector....??

Though I know my mother had a mess-up - ie a hip replacement operation that went wrong (my estimate was that they attempted to shoehorn too big a hip into her). I hadn't realised that they make several different sizes of hip replacement joint - and use the nearest in size!!!!!! I was gobsmacked - as I'd thought that they (obviously!) made a custom-made one for each person (ie to match their size etc). My mother was tiny (ie 1970s size 8 - she'd be in child-size clothes now with vanity sizing of this era) and so I imagine they chose the smallest "ready made" and it was too big.

Certainly something for anyone that has been advised to have a hip replacement - ie don't think they'll make one just for you (ie because they should do things that way)....you'll get a "ready made" !!!!

Though she did sorta fall down between the cracks and I don't know whose responsibility it was ultimately - suspect it was the NHS' - as she was one of the ones the NHS took off their waiting list and forwarded through to the nearby private hospital instead in order to cut that list. I was pleased at the time - as I just thought "They've got my mother sussed then when they made her one of the ones they picked off that list...and she'll prefer that".

I used to be the community rep on a hospital board and once a month they would review all the ‘mistakes’ or negative events and comments that had come in. They would decide on action to prevent things reoccurring.They were very rigorous about it. This was in the public system. It was pointed out to me that the private system had no such checks and balances - a good argument against private health care for me! Private = much better food, rooms etc but if the standard of care is unmonitored that is a worry.

Some years ago my husband had spent a week in hospital for a heart condition..he had many health problems that meant he was taking many medications.
By the time he came home he said they had done a review of his medication.
He filled a weekly box to help him with timings.
Towards the end of the first month I was going to reorder our joint prescription as usual..
Checking each of his his to make sure I'd got the correct details online..one box wasn't his..it had another man's name on it!!
I checked online what its used for..Diabetes..that's one complaint he never had. I rang the GP who said to ring the ward..I also rang PALS..I've no recollection now what the answers were but fortunately no harm done.
The other patient would have missed a month's medication..

It always pays to be one step ahead..which is OK if you have someone to assist..

Marjoram 👍🏻

Shocking MOnica, I’m relieved you’re the individual in the middle of this mess because you’re so capable of managing and negotiating.

That is a severe data breach. I would definitely report that to the information commissioners office (ICO) that could result in a £10,000 fine. I would also write a letter to the chief executive , you would certainly get a reply. I had a similar incident with a housing association, they sent me an email and it had information in the email. There was nothing to do with me, I brought it to their attention and the chief executive phoned me and asked me if I wanted to report it to the ICO. At the time I said no but when it happened a second time I reported it myself and they were fined £10,000.

My GP surgery is no better I got someone else breast screening results and someone else’s message to complete a frailty questionnaire and the staff at the surgery were not at all concerned

Marjgran - good post and reminding us of the background to a lot of the problems all round. Having been a personal secretary = I know we're necessary in many places and help "hold things together" and can well understand how things went haywire without us.
Yep.....we filled in a lot of gaps - because we'd spotted them and pointed it out...made sure things were in order etc.

No flippin' chance/less than zero flippin' chance of some of us calling it "our NHS and Angels".

Am starting to rack my brains to try and think of any ever - and in the last few years definitely not anyone that merits that.

I can think of one doctor that was particularly praiseworthy - that was back in the 1980s.....errrrm.....struggling to think of any more medical staff ever....errrrrm.....still struggling....

Apart from him - I can think of a few other health people I rate - and they're all private (so they ought to be - as they're all being paid directly be me...instead of indirectly out of my taxes).

Thinking back what must be 20 odd years to a day operation in an NHS hospital. Filthy floor with cleaner desultorily swishing around a dirty mop....all felt somewhat dirty.....blazing row with the medics before the op. (as I'd read a book on procedures for having an operation - and so I knew one can have a tablet instead of pre-med injection and I hate hate hate needles and so had decided to have the tablet). The blazing row was they were trying to ride roughshod over me and ignore my decision on that - so I got my tablet eventually...but they'd thoroughly upset me by then and bang had gone my carefully cultivated calm I'd been working on with soothing music/relaxing essential oils. Cue for looking down at one measly blanket on my bed and so, as soon as I'd come round from the operation and could walk I promptly discharged myself - rather than stay the night as they planned and I'd have been cold and I bet I'd have had disturbed sleep during the night because of them doing various things to suit themselves. How the heck anyone is supposed to heal via the NHS is a bit of a mystery to me....

I will praise good treatment and complain about bad. I did a support group for nurses on the acute Covid ward. Traumatised. They were angels. My GP is about to retire and I will grieve that after 25 years of her care (yes, shared with other practice staff but she holds the thread of my complex biology). And yes one nurse on the dreadful A&E overflow ward my daughter ended up on was a devil. It is a vast organisation and reflects us as a society.

Shocking! as are all the responses.. but this is NHS 2025, so I’m not shocked. Incompetence, delay, avoidance is the “new normal” for NHS. Treatment if you get it (on time or correct) simply means their conveyer belt is moving, but we’ll all be piled up again at the end of the line like dominoes. Now doctors are going on strike again… with the “we don’t want to” mantra, and expect our sympathy… definitely more in their pockets than in their hearts… please stop calling it “our NHS and Angels” 🤮

Ok folks. Of course getting someone else’s results is woeful and unethical. And there is chaos at times in the NHS system. But it is not either universal or inexplicable. The times of austerity led to public services making “efficiencies”.

Do folk really understand who was affected what that means? Not just in the NHS but in the police, courts, schools, councils. The “backroom” people were culled and or reorganised.

So people turn up at court and the papers / the witnesses / the translator / the relevant arresting officer aren’t there. There was no one to organise it.

The police lost their secretaries / offices / canteens / support. The turnover is terrible. Many NHS organisations saved funds by getting rid of support staff, for example consultants secretaries - letters were sent electronically to a typing centre in South Africa and returned electronically (what could possibly go wrong).

Compulsory competitive tendering meant the local psych hospital was built by a company which never built one before. They planned to put balconies and real mirrors on the secure wing, mostly spotted before building.

In house cleaners were replaced by outsourced teams probably on zero hours contracts and no knowledge of the wards they clean

The civil service has sacked internal experts and relies on expensive case by case consultants, so has no resource of deep institutional knowledge about problems.

I could go on. Repeat text messages (to the right recipient!) are a nuisance but result from different computer alerts being triggered. Yes, it should be sorted but better a peppering of too many alerts than too few. And “fixing” means “manpower” and manpower is the most expensive resource in all public services.

I recently got a rather detailed letter from a bank meant for someone with a similar name. I returned to sender. I regularly get emails which are meant for someone in the USA with an email one digit difference from mine. I delete.

I have seen awful treatment in the NHS and worse in the private sector. The worst night nurse was in the most expensive hospital (briefly insured at the time). My daughter’s experience in the USA was hair curling. I have also had the most wonderful care in the NHS, and harrassed staff who are unsupported by “backroom” decisions because it has been hollowed out. As they say, you don’t know what you’ve got till it is gone.

This is a serious data breach, and the way they’re handling it is honestly awful. Four sets of someone else’s results and no urgency from the hospital is unacceptable. You’re right to take it to the ICO and your MP.

Signs of so many mess-ups here - am almost beginning to feel like I "got lucky" when I've not actually had a mess-up with someone else.

Lots of other NHS defects for sure! including a misdiagnosis of an illness in my 30's that would have mucked my life up a lot if I hadnt been of practical enough nature I'd already figured out what was wrong and am determined enough by nature that I walked out on the spot when the doctor came out with a misdiagnosis and swopped him for another who was better at their job than him.

I still hold to putting a Facebook post - suitably anonymised - to contact the proper recipient of the letter. Actually I would be seeing the major purpose of the post being to see what responses came back from other people locally saying "Yep...happened to me too" and "Me as well" and "Yeah and me too". Maybe turn the whole thing into a group issue of x number of people going to the local MP and saying "Look what's happened to all of us here from this inefficient Health Board". If the MP goes at them saying "Look I've had 100 of my constituents complaining to me about your inefficiency" and cue for a newspaper article as well = then maybe that health authority might start pulling their finger out......

To me it would be "Never take on a fight with a former political activist - as you won't like what they do...." if it was me....

Oops, should be is not openly identified.

Make an appeal on Facebook. If name of proper recipient is on the results just leave out some letters in order that person is openly identified. Someone somewhere may see the post. Or go on NHS website and do the same. Just awful situation.

My OH got 4 NHS letters today. 2 were giving him a hospital appointment he already knew about in April , 2 were cancelling the appointment. So has he got an appointment or not?

spabbygirl

I had to cancel an appt recently and rang and rang the number given to do this and got no answer so I just didn't turn up. I did complain though and a lady rang back and said they're just starting work on a website that allows you to cancel.
so fingers crossed for more efficientcy soon!

This happened to me too. I was unable to keep an appointment because nobody answered the phone. I rebooked. When I then went for my appt the receptionist apologised and said there was no way of cancelling one unless you phoned.

FindingNemo15

Send a copy and details of everything to Wes Streeting.

Great idea.

I had to cancel an appt recently and rang and rang the number given to do this and got no answer so I just didn't turn up. I did complain though and a lady rang back and said they're just starting work on a website that allows you to cancel.
so fingers crossed for more efficientcy soon!

The last time my late DH was admitted to hospital as an emergency I stayed with him until the early hours when he was much better. When he was discharged his documents had a completely unknown name and address of next of kin! If he had suddenly got worse overnight then I would never have known and vice versa for the 'other' next of kin.

I had a telephone GP appointment this morning only to be told that a follow up urine test done 4 weeks ago after a uti (not had one of those for 5 decades) and immediately followed the shingles vaccine), was entirely the wrong test when the GP was looking through my notes. They want me to do another one. 🤦‍♀️

On a different tack, I went in for Day Surgery recently and found that there were just two of us in there that afternoon, for very minor procedures and we were outnumbered by the staff on the ward by 4:1 and the theatre staff by twice that. Surely they could make more efficient use of the time, ward and theatre space?