A BUNGLE by staff at the Alexandra hospital led to patients from the Bromsgrove area who attended a clinic at Worcester Royal Infirmary on Saturday morning having to be sent home without seeing the consultant.

Their case notes, which should have been sent on ahead from the Redditch hospital, failed to arrive.

Apologetic Infirmary staff explained to the unfortunate patients there was nothing they could do as the consultant could not see them without having their medical records to hand.

They were reimbursed with their travel and parking expenses, offered a free lunch and told to make new appointments.

Now some are considering asking the health "watchdog" group, Bromsgrove and Redditch Community Health Council, to make a formal complaint on their behalf.

One furious patient who declined to be named, who had made the 30 mile round trip from her home, said her original appointment had been made for the Alex in November.

But, a fortnight ago she jumped at the chance when she received a phone call from Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust (WAHNHST) offering her the chance to see a different specialist earlier at the Infirmary.

"It was such a total waste of everyone's time including the nursing staff and the specialist who had come from Birmingham for the clinic," she said.

"Now it could be mny weeks before I get another appointment.

"I want to know how such an error can happen."

This latest incident follows our revelation last month when we highlighted how because of a computer foul-up doctors at the Alex were sometimes left twiddling their thumbs waiting for patients to turn up who had not been sent appointments.

Yesterday a spokeswoman for WAHNHST said: "We have been running clinics at Castle Street two or three times a month for over a year in order to reduce waiting times for patients.

"Regrettably on this occasion the notes were not available and the consultant could not see patients.

"We apologise for inconvenience caused and are rescheduling appointments for those affected as soon as possible."