More than 1,300 patients were referred for urgent bowel cancer investigations they may not have needed after a calibration error at a shared NHS pathology service.
South West London Pathology identified a processing error affecting fecal immunochemical test (FIT) results, meaning results were five times higher than they should have been between 27 December 2025 and 4 March 2026.
Of the 17,000 FITs processed during that period, 4,223 returned incorrect results.
A total of 1,326 patients were subsequently placed on the two-week wait urgent cancer referral pathway and may have undergone a colonoscopy or CT colonoscopy, which they did not need.
The error occurred after a unit conversion process – used to translate results into the format used by UK GPs – stopped being applied for a period of time. HSJ understands this was due to human error rather than a technical fault.
16 NHS trusts and one integrated care board spanning London and Surrey had patients referred, with 281 GP practices having registered patients impacted by the incident.
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Source: HSJ, 2 June 2026
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