Patient in a rage as letter mixed-up

AN ANGRY Derker man has slammed NHS Oldham for sending out his personal appointment details to a stranger.

Martin Wilson, who was waiting for a letter detailing a hospital appointment, was wrongly sent an appointment letter containing details and personal NHS reference numbers for a different Mr Wilson in Oldham.

The 64-year-old, who has been waiting four weeks for an ophthalmology appointment, said the mix up left him “incandescent with rage”.

He said: “It bothers me that my details have been passed on to a stranger and this man’s details passed on to me.

“Human error is not good enough and machine error is usually the fault of a person.

“I’m waiting for an ophthalmology appointment but I haven’t even got the same condition as this other person.

“I’ve had hospital appointments which have been postponed before, including one where they’d sent a letter to me in a taxi on Christmas Eve.

“I’ve formally complained and have suffered a lot of stress and expenses in terms of phone calls.

“And I’ve still got to wait for my original appointment.”

Shauna Dixon, NHS Oldham chief executive, said: “We would like to apologise to Mr Wilson. We do have effective systems in place; this mistake was unfortunately down to human error.

“We are investigating how this came about and are speaking to staff involved to make doubly sure that processes are followed, so this doesn’t happen again.

“We understand Mr Wilson’s concerns that his appointment may have been delayed because of this, but can reassure him that this would not be by more than 24 to 48 hours at the most.

“We have spoken to Mr Wilson and are now working with him to resolve his complaint in line with our procedure.”