A REPORT investigating “significant discrepancies” in data at the Royal Bolton Hospital has revealed more than half of cases tested “did not meet national standards”.

Today, Bolton Clinical Commissioning Group was presented with Dr Foster’s final report into whether staff at the Bolton NHS Foundation Trust have been “coding” patients’ illnesses and causes of death incorrectly as septicaemia.

Dr Wirin Bhatiani, chair of Bolton Clinical Commissioning Group, said: “The final report confirms that clinical coding of sepsis is of concern.

“This report looked at the quality of the coding process — we now need medical input to understand how and why this happened, and to understand if the coding was clinically appropriate. We have no evidence clinical care of patients has been compromised. We have jointly agreed with Bolton NHS Foundation Trust the scope of an independent, clinically-led review and the terms of reference with its chair David Wakefield.”

Dr Foster found the standard of coding before clinical validation takes place was robust.

However, Dr Foster found that, of the 150 patient cases coded as septicaemia reviewed by Dr Foster, 76 were found not to meet national coding standards.

Of these, 69 were as a consequence of the retrospective clinical validation process.

As a result of the report’s findings and recommendations, Bolton CCG is now supporting a further clinical review to understand the implications from a clinical perspective.

The independent clinical review team will be chaired by Kathy Doran, chief executive Cheshire, Wirral and Warrington PCT cluster, and be clinically led by Dr Peter Williams, medical director at Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals Trust.