Hundreds of local hospital patients misdiagnosed

An urgent review has revealed the trust that runs Rochdale Infirmary and the Royal Oldham Hospital has found 400 cases of misdiagnosis.

The review, by Pennine Acute NHS Trust, found that 105 cases related to possible delays in the diagnosis or treatment of cancer.

Twenty of the 400 were considered “serious incidents”, 14 causing “severe harm” and four “moderate harm” to patients.

The trust — which also runs North Manchester General and Fairfield General in Bury — carried out a review of cases over the past five years, triggered by a surge in the number of failings reported by medical staff. There were also checks on scans and X-rays from the hospitals.

Health watchdog the Care Quality Commission said while the probe wasn’t unprecedented, it was significant. A spokesman said the commission was closely monitoring the exercise before deciding whether or not to intervene.

A trust report shows 11 serious incidents regarding misdiagnosis between April and August this year and another 27 identified by clinical commissioning groups. This compares with only five serious incidents reported between January 2010 and March 2015.

The review identified 1,635 incidents between January 2010 and April 2015 of which 398 about a quarter needed further investigation. 105 identified possible delays in cancer diagnosis, 13 were potential missed fractures and 280 related to blood clots. Twenty were determined to be potentially serious incidents. Between 2010 and April 2015 there were 56 complaints.

A Pennine Acute NHS Trust spokesman said: “Patient safety and the quality of care are our top priority. As we strengthen our processes and incident reporting, we have seen an increase in the number of our clinical staff highlighting areas where we can make care safer. There is no data or evidence to suggest the Trust is an outlier in this area.”