Patient safety worry over records

Concerns have been raised over patient safety, after a poll revealed thousands of appointments are taking place without the patient's records.

Around 54,000 outpatient appointments took place with no records across the 49 hospital trusts who responded.

The investigation, by the Health Service Journal (HSJ) said there was no standardised way of measuring how many patient records are missing each year.

A medical expert said it was dangerous not to have patient records available.

The HSJ found six out of the 49 trusts had 5% or more notes missing. On average 2.6% of outpatient records were missing.

City Hospitals Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust reported the highest rate, with 19% of outpatient records unavailable at the start of clinic.

A spokesman for the trust told the HSJ the situation was improving and a new position had been created to address the issue.

The analysis of over two million outpatient appointments at 49 hospitals was of the period between 2006 and 2008.

Richard Vize, editor of the Health Service Journal said if that rate is replicated across the NHS approximately 1.2 million outpatients in England will be seen without their notes every year.

The HSJ said trusts may downplay the extent of the missing records, for example by cancelling appointments where full details are not available or by creating temporary records.

You can read more about patient safety worry over records on the BBC website here.