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Trust apologises to 850 patients who wrongly received cancer leaflet with appointment letter (11 May 2015)

Date: 11/05/2015
Duncan Lewis, Legal News Solicitors, Trust apologises to 850 patients who wrongly received cancer leaflet with appointment letter

East Sussex Healthcare Trust has apologised after 850 patients were wrongly sent letters telling them to make an urgent appointment as they might have cancer.

The letter was accompanied by a “two-week appointment” leaflet and sent to patients across the trust’s catchment areas of Hastings, Eastbourne and Rother, the Daily Mail reports.

In March, patients were advised they had been referred for an appointment as soon as possible as their symptoms “might indicate cancer”. The trust said the letters and leaflet were sent out as the result of an administrative error.

A 31-year-old woman from Bexhill in East Sussex who received a letter said she was waiting for a gynaecology outpatient appointment when she received the letter and leaflet,

The patient – who does not wish to be identified – said that receiving the mailout came as “a bit of a shock”.

“I had emergency surgery at Christmas and in subsequent correspondence with the hospital, the possibility of cancer had never been mentioned,“ she said. “So it felt quite unsettling to receive the leaflet.

“We received such great care from staff, it's shame that this has happened,” she added.


A spokesperson for the trust said that measures were being put in place to make sure the error did not happen again – including improving staff training and checking existing guidance on the appropriate leaflets to attach to patient appointment letters.

The trust added that there would be more meetings with the supplier of the trust’s patient literature to provide greater quality assurance.

Assistant director of operations at the trust, Liz Fellows, said:

“We have written and apologised to all those who were incorrectly sent the wrong patient information leaflet with their hospital appointment letter.

“It was an administrative error and we would again apologise for any unnecessary anxiety this error may have caused.

“Due to the large number of appointment letters we send out we – in common with a number of other trusts – use an external printing company to print and distribute our appointment letters.

“Each letter is coded to indicate any supplementary information that needs to accompany the letter.
“Unfortunately, for a short period in March, the printing company inadvertently miscoded approximately 850 letters resulting in a ‘two-week information leaflet’ being inserted with an appointment letter.

“When this error became apparent, it was stopped immediately – and letters of apology were sent to those who had received the incorrect leaflet.”

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