Hospital apology over discharge notes mix-up (From Clacton and Frinton Gazette)

Colchester Hospital apology over discharge notes mix-up with Clacton patient

3:00pm Saturday 27th October 2012 in News

A CARER was shocked to discover her mother-in-law had been handed another patient’s private information when she was discharged from hospital.

Sylvia Barnes, 77, from Little Clacton, was at Colchester General Hospital for a week before being discharged on Friday.

Her carer - daughter-in-law Amanda – was given her discharge notes as they left the hospital.

But when she got home and started to read through the notes Amanda noticed the information did not seem quite right.

Amanda said: “When I got home I started to read through them, and after a little while I released that they weren’t the right notes.

“It turned out they belonged to a woman from Chigwell instead of my mother-in-law.

“These forms have a lot of very personal information on, like your health problems and medication, as well as the person’s hospital numbers, address and everything.

“We were both really shocked to discover it and we were really put out.

“It’s quite bad. I don’t think a lot of people would want their private details passed out to strangers when they leave the hospital."

The hospital has apologised for the discharge form mix-up and says it has taken action to prevent it happening again.