DOZENS of patients tested at a hospital were wrongly told they had coronavirus. Some 78 patients at Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton, Somerset, wrongly thought they had contracted the killer virus after an error caused by a faulty machine. Concerns were raised after it emerged that one of the testing machines at the hospital […]
DOZENS of patients tested at a hospital were wrongly told they had coronavirus.
Some 78 patients at Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton, Somerset, wrongly thought they had contracted the killer virus after an error caused by a faulty machine.
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Concerns were raised after it emerged that one of the testing machines at the hospital was giving an unexpectedly high number of positive results for Covid-19.
The swabs affected were then re-tested on another machine which showed some of them were ‘false positives’.
The hospital is now contacting 78 patients who received incorrect results.
Dr Daniel Meron, Chief Medical Officer at Somerset NHS Foundation Trust said:”On Thursday June 4th one of our vigilant laboratory managers noticed an unusual increase in the number of positive test results for patients at Musgrove Park Hospital recorded by one of the laboratory’s machines and we moved quickly to retest those swabs on a second machine.
“This showed that the analyzer had reported some false positive results.
“We are now in the process of contacting all those patients who were diagnosed as having coronavirus after their swabs were analysed in the faulty machine to explain to them what has happened.
“It is possible they may have been incorrectly diagnosed, to understand the impact this may have had on them, to offer them subsequent testing and to say how sorry we are.
“Our heartfelt apologies go to all patients and their families who have been affected.”
It is believed the machine produced false positive results between the end of May and the first week in June before the fault was spotted.
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