WHISTLEBLOWERS claim they may have exposed the full scale of the number of serious errors made by Bristol's pathology service.

The South West Whistleblowers Health Action Group believes as many as 6,800 patients may have been wrongly diagnosed when their tissue samples were tested for cancer and other diseases at the Bristol Royal Infirmary between 2000 and 2008.

Former breast cancer patient Daphne Havercroft, who leads the South West Whistleblowers Health Action Group

The group claims the true scale of the mix-ups in diagnosis were not made clear in a report published in December 2010, at the end of an 18-month inquiry into the hospital's histopathology service.

The inquiry concluded that while there were some serious errors in diagnosis there was no evidence to show that the hospital did not offer a safe service.

Independent doctors reviewed 26 specific allegations of misdiagnosis, and found only three of the samples represented serious errors. However, the whistleblowers' group says it has now discovered more figures in an annexe to the inquiry's report.

The group says there is an admission that an audit of a further 3,500 cases found that in 3.4 per cent of them independent pathologists who re-examined the samples believed the wrong diagnosis had been made. With the hospital examining more than 20,000 specimens a year, the figure could represent up to 6,800 errors over a decade.

Among the tissue samples wrongly diagnosed were those of Catherine Calland, of Hotwells, who is now terminally ill after her cancer was missed.

Former breast cancer patient Daphne Havercroft, left, who leads the whistleblowers' group, has written a letter to the chairman of the inquiry to question the figures. She fears plans to merge the BRI's pathology service with services across the city at Southmead Hospital could put a larger population at risk.

Ms Havercroft believes the problems at the pathology service have still not been properly investigated.

She said: "We think patients are being put at risk. If we get expert evidence to say that the figures we have come up with are wrong, then that's fine.

"We are saying 'This is our hypothesis – can you disprove it?'"

University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the BRI, told a national newspaper that it had accepted the inquiry's findings and focused on implementing the recommendations. A spokesman said the inquiry's independent panel found no evidence to suggest the department was not safe.

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Bristol Evening Post commented Wrong diagnoses by Bristol's pathology service 'could hit 6,800'