UK : Inaccuracies at the Heart of NHS Patient Records – Report by Healthwatch England & BMG Research
- Vineet Malik
- May 1
- 2 min read
By Vineet Malik | May 1, 2025 | India
BMG Research in close alliance with the Healthwatch England through a research conducted on 1800 patients in late March this year uncovers myriad inaccuracies that may result in serious harm or even death of patients being treated by the National Health Service (NHS)
Healthwatch England, a committee of the Care Quality Commission monitors the healthcare quality benchmarks and acts as a voice for patients and the public by gathering feedback on their experiences with a purpose to improve healthcare services.
Patients experiences about the healthcare system in England casts doubt on the standards and efficiency of professionals employed by the NHS.
Healthcare England has kept the names of the people interviewed by BMG Research confidential.
Missing Information
Nearly one in five (19 percent) patients reported on missing information about the disease suffered by them.
29 percent patients said “Important information from their medical history such as duration of serious ill health or time spent in hospital is missing from the medical records.
Furthermore, the inaccuracies are also reported on medications, diagnosis or treatments.
A quarter (26 percent) patients noticed inaccuracies on their personal details. A national safety body has found that misidentification can have serious consequences such as the wrong surgery being carried out.
One of the patients said “I have had two full and one partial hysterectomies. I also have five flu jabs recorded in the space for four days when I hadn’t even had one.”
Healthwatch admits that correcting records can be a long and/or difficult process.
In August last year, parent died after Doctors used incorrect medical history.
The United Kingdom (UK) Prime Minister Keir Starmer recently admitted that “NHS and UK healthcare services are stuck in the dark ages and took a vow to reduce appointment waiting times.”
An estimated 7.54 M treatments were still waiting to be carried out till October last year.
Some patients have complaint about NHS application secretly recording their personal information. This makes them skeptical in using the application.
In March, Starmer made a statement to scrap the NHS England to handover the management of health service into democratic control in order to cut bureaucracy and duplication. He further added “That will put the NHS at the heart of government, where it belongs.”
It remains to be seen, if the chaos created by inaccuracies of patient medical records and more will ever be sorted out within a definite timeline.
The report can be read here.
Comments