West Middlesex Hospital has apologised after sending an appointment letter to a woman who had never used the hospital, following a patient number mix up.

Elizabeth Ward from Croydon received a letter on Saturday, June 1, for an appointment for a treadmill stress echocardiogram which she knew nothing about.

Mrs Ward said: “I panicked a bit and obviously I couldn’t phone the hospital then or my surgery, so I phoned the number on the letter at 9am on Monday and asked why I had received a letter for this appointment of which I knew nothing about.

“The lady insisted I must’ve been to West Middlesex hospital at some point or through to the chest clinic, of which I said ‘no’.”

After her doctor confirmed the appointment was not needed, West Middlesex Hospital called back to say it was an error.

Mrs Ward said: “I don’t think that’s very good, this person could be elderly. I could’ve been elderly and panicked, which could’ve led to quite a bit more.”

The letter informs the patient that an echocardiography gives information about the condition of the heart muscle, signed off by the diagnostic cardiology team.

A West Middlesex spokesman said: “An appointment letter for an outpatient test was incorrectly sent to a patient with a very similar hospital identification number to a patient who was meant to receive the appointment.

“The letter contained no confidential information and the correct patient has received their appointment letter without causing any delay to their test.

“We have apologised to the patient who received the letter in error and have carried out a full investigation as to the cause of this incident. While we have systems and procedures in place to ensure this incident should not occur it appears to have been made through individual human error.

“The hospital sees almost a quarter of a million outpatient appointments each year and incidents like this one are exceptionally rare.”

The spokesman explained that although Mrs Ward had never visited the hospital, a patient number linked to it had been created after she visited a surgery in Teddington.