IT mistake erases 11 years of viewing history for hospitals’ maternity records

NUH noted that the data loss doesn’t impact current patient care.

“No patient information was accessed or used inappropriately as a result of this incident,” the blog said.

In a statement accompanying the blog, Andy Callow, NUH’s chief digital and information officer, said NUH completed a patient safety incident investigation and has taken unspecified steps to strengthen “technical controls and processes to help prevent a similar incident from happening again.”

“I am sorry for the concern and distress this incident may cause to women and families affected,” he said.

Police investigating

The announcement comes as NUH faces a broader police investigation into allegations that over 500 mothers and babies endured “potentially avoidable” harm or died due to systemic failings within NUH, per a review of the hospitals’ maternity department released in June and led by a senior midwife. These reported failings include understaffing, undertrained employees, and failure to listen to parental concerns, the BBC reported at the time.

Also, in June 2025, a local police investigation concluded that a file with records for hundreds of maternity care patients at NUH was likely erased “intentionally or maliciously.” NUH recovered that 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 and if criminal charges will be filed, the BBC reported this week. The police are also trying to retrieve the lost data.

“At present, no crime has been identified,” deputy chief constable Rob Griffin, one of the investigation’s leaders, said, per the BBC.

Nottingham Maternity Family Group, a group representing some of the families affected by the broader investigation, said that the data loss reported this week is “extremely unnerving.”

“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,” the group said in a statement, per the BBC.