Digital Event Horizon
English hospitals’ maternity records have been wiped of 11 years of viewing history due to a human error in the IT department. The incident has sparked concern among families affected by a broader police investigation into allegations of systemic failures within the hospitals. The trust has taken steps to strengthen technical controls and processes to prevent a similar incident from happening again.
11 years of viewing history for Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust's maternity records were erased due to human error. The error occurred on August 18 while creating a copy of a radiotherapy database. The mistake was caused by a setting being missed, leading to the overwrite of the maternity database. NHU was unable to retrieve some data, potentially making it impossible to confirm whether records were viewed between 2011 and 2022. The trust has taken steps to strengthen technical controls and processes to prevent similar incidents. The incident is being investigated by Nottinghamshire Police, which is also trying to retrieve the lost data. The police investigation is connected to a broader case of potentially avoidable harm or death of mothers and babies at NUH.
A recent IT mistake at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (NUH) has led to the erasure of 11 years of viewing history for hospitals’ maternity records. The error occurred on August 18, and the trust announced the issue in a blog post, which was spotted by The Register. The blog stated that the problem was caused by human error during routine technical work while creating a copy of a radiotherapy database for reporting purposes.
The process used a set of pre-written computer instructions that had previously been used for a different hospital system. However, a setting that should have been changed before the process was run was missed, causing the process to be carried out on the maternity database instead of the radiotherapy database. This resulted in the maternity records database being overwritten, leading to the loss of data from NUH’s previous maternity database, which included maternity records for women and babies who received care from NUH from September 2011 to November 2022.
NUH has been unable to retrieve some of the data, and as a result, in most cases, they may be unable to confirm whether a maternity record was viewed by a particular person between September 2011 and November 2022. Despite this, the trust was able to restore patient care-related data, including notes, observations, test results, and other information recorded as part of a person’s care.
The data loss does not impact current patient care, and NUH has taken steps to strengthen technical controls and processes to help prevent a similar incident from happening again. The trust has also completed a patient safety incident investigation and has taken unspecified steps to address the issue.
The incident has sparked concern among families affected by the broader police investigation into allegations that over 500 mothers and babies endured "potentially avoidable" harm or died due to systemic failings within NUH. The police investigation concluded that a file with records for hundreds of maternity care patients at NUH was likely erased "intentionally or maliciously" in June 2025. NUH recovered the data days after its deletion.
Nottinghamshire Police is investigating whether the most recent data loss impacts the larger case concerning the maternity care-related injuries and deaths. The police are also trying to retrieve the lost data. Deputy chief constable Rob Griffin stated that "at present, no crime has been identified," but the police are trying to determine if the incident is connected to the larger case.
The Nottingham Maternity Family Group, a group representing some of the families affected by the broader investigation, described the data loss as "extremely unnerving." They stated that families who have already endured preventable harm, injury, and bereavement should not also have to worry about the security of the records of their experiences.
Related Information:
https://www.digitaleventhorizon.com/articles/IT-Mishap-Erases-Decades-of-Viewing-History-for-Maternity-Records-in-English-Hospitals-deh.shtml
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2026/09/it-mistake-erases-11-years-of-viewing-history-for-hospitals-maternity-records/
Published: Tue Sep 22 14:15:33 2026 by llama3.2 3B Q4_K_M
