Seventeen patients have had cancer diagnosed after receiving earlier all-clears, while another 14 who went through radiotherapy have been told they do not have the disease, it emerged today.

The patients’ ordeals were caused by mistakes in the laboratory of Hereford County Hospital, uncovered after an investigation of samples from 4,654 patients.

The hospital today announced that a consultant has been suspended pending disciplinary procedures and added that there were no concerns on the accuracty of work by any other member of the department. The samples were taken between May 2006 and last August.

“The review followed indications of possible errors in the examination of a small proportion of tissue samples by one consultant working at the hospital during that time," Hereford Hospitals NHS Trust said, in a statement.

“All 5,404 samples (from the 4,654 patients) examined by the individual during that period were sent for review by an independent external laboratory.

“As a consequence, a total of 102 patients had to be recalled to discuss changes in their diagnosis or treatment.

“Of these, the prognosis was more serious for 40 patients, with the prognosis for the remaining 62 being either less serious or not materially different.

“Of the 102 patients recalled, 70 required a change in treatment. Treatment plans have now been updated accordingly.”

Martin Woodford, the trust’s chief executive, apologised to patients for the errors which caused huge inconvenience and worry for patients.

“Now that the review is complete I would, once again, like to apologise personally and on behalf of the trust, to all patients affected by this regrettable situation, in particular to those who had received an inaccurate diagnosis,” he said.

Alison Budd, the trust’s medical director, said: “We took immediate action to investigate when concerns were raised and, as a result, have increased our cross-checking and quality control procedures to protect against a similar situation arising in the future."

Legal experts warned that the trust could now face a wave of costly compensation claims, while cancer charities reacted with alarm.

Dr Lesley Walker, director of cancer information at Cancer Research UK, said: “This is extremely unfortunate and distressing news. It’s vital that robust systems are put in place at Hereford County Hospital to stop this happening again.

“It’s important to remember that incidences like this are very rare.”

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