An elderly cancer patient told how shocked he was when he received a phone call from his GP telling him that he had been wrongly registered as deceased.
In late July, John Ashcroft was told by his doctors that his records had listed him as “deceased,” when it was “very clear” he was still alive.
The 73-year-old man, who is in remission from prostate cancer, tried to log into his hospital records but he and his wife Susan were “stunned” to see that access had been denied because “he didn’t exist”.
All of his medical records and appointments had disappeared, leaving him unable to reorder his medications.
The concerned couple, who admitted they found the situation extremely “nerve-wracking”, were then forced to wait two weeks for their medical records to be restored.
John Ashcroft (pictured) was told by his doctors in late July that he had been listed as ‘deceased’ in their system, when it was ‘very clear’ he was still alive.
The 73-year-old (right), who is in remission from prostate cancer, tried to log into his hospital records but he and his wife Susan (left) were ‘stunned’ to see that access had been denied because ‘he didn’t exist’
Mr Ashcroft and his wife still do not know how the blunder happened and they fear he will be reported as dead by other organisations.
The former NHS worker recalled: ‘I got a phone call on Monday, two weeks ago, saying I had been registered as deceased.
‘It was an IT person who called to ask if I had died or not.
He said that’s clearly not the case because you’re talking to me.
‘The man said it would be sorted out within three hours, but two weeks later it still hadn’t been sorted out.’
The former NHS worker is undergoing treatment for prostate cancer and was ‘shocked’ by what he was told on the phone.
“Because I had cancer, I had immediate access to my notes. Sue went through them, but there was nothing in them,” he said.
His wife, Mrs Ashcroft, added: ‘We couldn’t log in.
‘It said he didn’t exist, so I couldn’t log into the medication and I started to panic a little bit, because John was almost out of medication.
‘Last week there were fights when we wanted to order the medicines and they said we couldn’t order them.’
The cancer patient was told that he was ‘no longer a patient’ and that he could no longer order the medications.
The couple escalated the matter to the practice manager of their local GP. They were registered with Island City Practice in Portsmouth, Hampshire.
Mr Ashcroft said his wife, who worked for the technology company IBM for 20 years, immediately went to work trying to resolve the incident.
“I have to say Sue has done all the groundwork that I couldn’t do myself,” he said.
The 70-year-old contacted the PCSE [Primary Care Support England]their local MP and other organisations who urged them to correct the mistake.
After a two-week wait, Mr Ashcroft’s medical records were restored and he was declared alive again by his GP.
The couple were registered with Island City Practice (also known as Lake Road Health Centre in Portsmouth, Hampshire)
But the grandfather still worries about where else he will be registered as ‘deceased’.
“We don’t know how far this has gone. I don’t think we ever will,” he said.
Mrs Ashcroft added: ‘We found out on July 22, but how long before that had it happened?’
Although the medical issues have now been resolved, Mr Ashcroft is concerned about the impact on his pension and passport, particularly as he and his wife are due to travel to Morocco, North Africa, in September.
“We have a holiday booked in September and I don’t know if my passport is still valid. We are in a quandary,” he added.
The husband said it’s probably a matter of going to the airport and waiting to see what happens at border control.
They said the issue had weighed heavily on them in recent weeks.
“It was stressful, very stressful and very upsetting,” Ashcroft said.
‘Lots of tears from both of us – and that’s really all I can say.
‘We can joke about it, our sense of humor allows us to do that, but underlying that…
‘[Our family] have all been very helpful.’
The couple have five children, five grandchildren and one great-grandson.
Mrs Ashcroft added: ‘They just didn’t believe what we were telling them because you can’t imagine it, you can’t make it up.
“We always play pranks on our grandchildren and they just think it’s a joke.”
Now the couple is looking for answers.
Mrs Ashcroft, who was born in Yorkshire, continued: ‘We are at our wits’ end because we don’t want to come down hard on the person who did all this.
“We want them to investigate and find out where in the country it happened so we can learn lessons from it.
“We don’t know if a death was reported, whether that was correct or if someone went into the system and chose the wrong name.”
Her husband added: ‘John Ashcroft is not an unusual name.
“But a John Ashcroft for my speech would be impossible.”
An NHS spokesperson said: ‘We are aware of an issue where a citizen’s death certificate is being incorrectly recorded on a patient’s medical record.
‘Within three hours of us reporting it, the issue was removed and the patient was re-registered by his GP.
“We apologize to the patient involved and encourage him to contact us directly so we can explain further.”
