A woman discovered she was mistakenly recorded as deceased when she attended a hospital appointment.
Susan Johnson, aged 62, visited Bridlington Hospital in Yorkshire, England, for a scan in March 2023. According to BBC, upon arrival, staff informed her that their records indicated she had passed away four months earlier.
“I handed them my letter, and their immediate response was, ‘Oh, you’re deceased.’ I was taken aback,” Johnson recounted.
Staff quickly updated the computer system to allow her to proceed with the scan, but the incident left Johnson deeply shaken.
She reached out to her primary care doctors at Scarborough Medical Group, who assured her the error had been corrected.
However, when Johnson contacted the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), responsible for welfare payments, she was informed by the call handler, “According to the system, you’re deceased,” she recalled.
NHS England acknowledged an issue involving the incorrect recording of a civil death registration in a patient’s medical file.
“We promptly rectified this within 24 hours of being notified in March 2023, and the patient’s registration was corrected by their GP. We urge the patient to contact us directly for further clarification,” NHS England stated.
Nevertheless, NHS England would not have informed other government departments like the DWP about the death.
Johnson remains puzzled about how she ended up being registered as deceased. Adding, “I need to uncover why this occurred, how, and by whom. Whoever made this mistake should not be in their current position,” she emphasized.
