11,000 patients may have been given wrong test result

Up to 11,000 patients may have received incorrect test results – including being misdiagnosed as diabetic – due to an equipment error at a trust, HSJ has learned. 

Bedfordshire Hospitals Foundation Trust (BHFT) experienced an intermittent issue with a machine used to analyse blood samples at its Luton hospital between April and July this year.

This affected blood tests are used to measure glucose levels, to diagnose type 2 diabetes and pre-diabetes, as well as to monitor those with known diabetes. 

The trust is contacting all patients who may have received an incorrect result and inviting them to take another test.

The trust said a review into this was ongoing and the incident had been reported to the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency.

BHFT said it could not determine the level of harm until all patients have been retested. However it did not expect the issue to have caused serious harm at this stage, and patients were being advised not to worry.

It said patients may have received an incorrect diagnosis of diabetes, or prediabetes or given management advice for known diabetes based on an erroneous result. There were no concerns that a diagnosis of diabetes may have been missed as the issue was causing higher results to be measured, according to the trust. 

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Source: HSJ, 11 September 2024