The scandal over the biggest ever loss of NHS medical correspondence has deepened with the revelation that a further 162,000 documents went missing, in addition to the 702,000 pieces of paperwork already known to have gone astray. MPs said they were “dumbstruck” to learn that even more material relating to patients’ health had been mislaid, some of it by NHS Shared Business Services (SBS), the firm co-owned by the government that lost the documents. The disclosure came at an evidence session of the Commons public accounts committee, which is investigating the disappearance that the Guardian first revealed in February. Health officials investigating a contractor’s loss of medical correspondence have discovered a further 162,000 missing documents, which could include patient records and cancer tests, parliament’s spending watchdog was told on Monday. Following an inquiry into the loss of the original 702,000 documents, NHS managers have admitted that two new tranches of mi...
