How was your Christmas?
Well, hopefully, it was better than that experienced by the doctor surgery – and its shocked patients - that saw a message muddle create panic and damaging global headlines.
The practice had intended to send its patients a Christmas message.
But instead, managed to wrongly inform them they had “aggressive lung cancer with metastases” – more ‘oh’ than ‘ho, ho, ho’.
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The message sent on December 23, went on to advise recipients to fill out a DS1500 form, which enables people with terminal conditions to receive certain benefits.
It has been reported people waiting for lung cancer test results were among those who received the bogus text.
Having shocked patients with a blunt festive death sentence, an apology and a correction followed.
In a subsequent SMS, sent around an hour later, Askern Medical Practice said: “Please accept our sincere apologies for the previous text message sent.
“This has been sent in error.
“Our message to you should have read We wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. In case of emergency please contact NHS 111.”
Askern Medical Practice sent the message to people registered with the Doncaster surgery on 23 December. The centre has almost 8,000 patients https://t.co/HXx3XXKJi3
— Alfredo (@soler_alfredo) December 29, 2022
Not surprisingly, the text message gaffe plunged the Doncaster surgery into crisis media management mode. And saw it at the centre of some damaging headlines.
Here are a few examples:
GP practice tells hundreds of patients they have lung cancer instead of ‘Merry Christmas’ Daily Mail
GP blunder sees patients sent text saying they have lung cancer on Christmas Eve Daily Mirror
Doncaster surgery sends cancer text instead of festive message BBC News
GP told patients they had aggressive lung cancer instead of ‘Merry Christmas’ Metro
The story also went international, with De Telegraaf, in The Netherlands, The Times of Malta, the New York Post, CBS News, and The Times of India among those covering the gaffe.
And there was a line that kept appearing in the stories. The BBC reported that “the surgery said nobody was available for comment”. The Daily Mail said, “Askern Medical Practice has been contacted for comment”. And The Sun said, “the surgery was contacted for comment”.
It seems journalists couldn't get hold of anyone from the surgery who could talk about the story.
We know the NHS is under extreme pressure currently. And we understand the story broke over Christmas.
Crisis communication would be a lot easier if things only went seriously wrong between 9am and 5pm Monday to Friday and stayed clear of Bank Holidays.
But, as we stress during our crisis communication training courses, crises rarely happen when it is convenient.
And organisations need to be able to respond quickly whenever the worst happens.
The surgery acted fairly quickly in sending out an apology text message. So, why wasn’t someone able to speak to the media?
This silence meant it lost any chance of controlling the narrative.
Instead of hearing from a representative apologising for the messaging error, explaining what had gone wrong and what would be done differently to ensure it could not happen again, upset and angry patients describing their shock and horror dominated the stories.
One patient told the BBC she “broke down” when she received the message.
She added: "I had just had a mole removed and was awaiting a result from a biopsy and I had been to hospital as my smear test came back abnormal, so yes, I was very worried."
The Daily Mail quoted a patient who said the text had caused their partner to “burst into tears.”
Another patient quoted by the BBC said the text was “enough to break someone”.
They added: “It completely took me by surprise... It's not often I go to the doctors, then out of the blue, it's cancer. I'm sat there scratching my head thinking, 'I do smoke, do they know something I don't?'"
"They've just told people a few days before Christmas they've got terminal lung cancer. They can't do that."
As well as controlling the narrative, putting someone forward to speak to the media – or at least issuing a statement - would also have helped to put the story into context. Was it sent to a small number of patients? Or did it go to all 8,000?
A little clarity may have helped avoid headlines like “8,000 UK patients receive message that they are dying of cancer instead of holiday greeting”, which is how the New York Post reported the story.
Speaking of clarity, the only public acknowledgement I have seen from the surgery about the story came in a post on its Facebook page.
It said: “We would like to once again apologise sincerely to all patients for the distress caused. We take patient communication, confidentiality, and data protection very seriously.”
An apology, sure. But it doesn’t sound particularly heartfelt. People are at the heart of most crises. And people have feelings. So, apologies must sound meaningful and human.
The post described the gaffe as both “an admin staff error” and “an isolated computer-related error”, which sounds more than a little contradictory and could suggest it does not fully understand what went wrong.
Being unexpectedly thrust into the media spotlight can feel daunting and overwhelming. But staying quiet isn’t an option.
It is why we always stress the importance of planning, preparation and crisis management testing.
Make sure you have plans in place. And they cover how you could respond to a crisis that happens outside of normal working hours or at the most inconvenient moment.
And then test that it works. A plan may look good on paper. But you don’t know it will work until you put it to the test.
That plan should include identifying people within your organisation who can communicate with empathy when things go wrong – like telling people they have terminal lung cancer when you intended to say ‘Happy Christmas’.
Media First are media and communications training specialists with more than 35 years of experience. We have a team of trainers, each with decades of experience working as journalists, presenters, communications coaches and media trainers.
Click here to find out more about our crisis communication training and crisis management testing.
