NHS Trust IT blunder overwrites 11 years of maternity records
Human error sent reused instructions at the wrong database, taking historical access logs with it
Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust inadvertently deleted 11 years of maternity records after failing to alter a setting in reused computer instructions. On August 18, staff unintentionally ran a pre-written set of instructions meant for another hospital system, which overwrote the trust's old Medway maternity records database containing information from September 2011 to November 2022.
Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) acknowledged the incident as human error and acted swiftly to mitigate the issue. The clinic was able to recover essential clinical information, including patient notes, observations, and test results, and no current maternity patients or services were affected. However, the trust struggled to restore the audit history, which records who accessed maternity records during the 11-year period.
This means they may now be unable to determine specific individuals who viewed a patient's maternity records between September 2011 and November 2022. The Information Commissioner's Office and Nottinghamshire Police have been informed, and they are assessing the impact on Operation Perth, an investigation into maternal and infant deaths and serious injuries at Nottingham City Hospital and Queen's Medical Centre.
NUH has since strengthened its technical controls and processes to prevent similar incidents from occurring. Andy Callow, the trust's chief digital and information officer, apologized to affected women and families and assured everyone that the information needed for patient care has been restored, and there has been no impact on current maternity services.
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