IT error erased 11 years Nottingham maternity record viewing history

Human Error Erases Maternity Record Viewing History

Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust has lost the complete viewing history of its maternity records for an eleven-year period after a human error in its IT department.

The trust said the mistake occurred during routine technical work on August 18, 2026, when staff copied a radiotherapy database. A setting that should have been changed first was missed, causing the process to run against the maternity database instead.

The overwritten database held the full maternity records for women and babies who received care from the trust between September 2011 and November 2022, it said.

In most cases, the trust may now be unable to confirm fully whether a particular person viewed a maternity record between September 2011 and November 2022.

The trust said it escalated the problem within minutes of identification and worked with external specialists to recover as much data. It also formally referred itself to the Information Commissioner's Office and immediately notified Nottinghamshire Police about the data loss incident.

Scandal Context Raises Stakes for Trust

The data loss carries particular significance because Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust has been at the centre of a major maternity scandal in England in recent years.

A review led by midwife Donna Ockenden concluded in June and examined the cases of 2,500 families over a twenty-year period. It found that more than 500 mothers and babies had suffered potentially avoidable harm with 162 dying after substandard care.

Nottinghamshire Police are conducting a separate criminal investigation, called Operation Perth, which was announced in September 2023 to examine deaths and serious injuries involving mothers and babies.

The force is now assessing whether the data loss will affect its investigation into deaths and harm involving mothers and babies. The trust has also said that the current maternity patients and services remain entirely unaffected by the data loss incident.

The trust has said that it fully assured the patients that no personal information was accessed or used inappropriately as a result of the human error.

Trust Apologizes and Strengthens Controls

Andy Callow, Chief Digital and Information Officer at Nottingham University Hospitals, apologized for the concern and distress the incident may cause. He said the trust took immediate action to investigate and recover all the vital information needed to support patient care.

He added that the trust has not been able to successfully restore the complete historical record showing who viewed patient maternity records during the eleven-year period.

Most of the patient care data, including notes, observations, and test results recorded for a person's care, has been recovered. The trust said it has completed an internal patient safety incident investigation and also strengthened its technical controls and processes.

The trust said that the new technical controls and processes are fully designed to help prevent any similar incident from ever happening again in the future.

The Information Commissioner's Office has been fully notified about the data loss incident, and the trust has also referred itself to the independent UK privacy regulator.