Clinic Tells Patients They Have Lung Cancer Instead Of 'Merry Christmas' In Text Message Mishap

A GP surgery is currently learning the hard way how a texting slip-up could result in some serious issues if you're not careful.

Instead of texting their patients "we wish you a very merry Christmas and a happy new year," Askern Medical Practice in Doncaster informed them that they had cancer.

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“[Redacted] has asked for you to do a DS1500 for the above patient. Diagnosis- Aggressive lung cancer with metastases,” the message read.

Patients who are terminally ill fill out the DS1500 form to claim benefits.

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The medical practice issued an apology for the mistakenly delivered message and wished its patients a merry holiday season an hour after delivering the alarming text message.

Patients were desperately trying to figure out if they were supposed to receive the message, but by then the harm had already been done.

The surgery center has around 8,000 patients, according to the BBC.

Photo: ASKERN MEDICAL PRACTICE/Facebook

Many patients expressed their confusion and fear in response to the text message.

"The first thing I thought was, 'is this some kind of sick joke?'” Carl Chegwin told BBC. "It completely took me by surprise... It's not often I go to the doctors, then out of the blue, it's cancer."

Another woman claimed that in order to acquire further information, she immediately rushed to the doctor's office, where she observed "six people there terrified since they had all received the same Text message."

@nothingthenow

Serious situations have seen similar occurrences.

In 2018, a text warning that a ballistic missile was coming toward Hawaii was fake, causing great concern among Hawaii residents.

Apple's "unsend message" tool would be useful in this situation.

@gregjames