美国国家公共电台 NPR--A U.K. medical office mistakenly sent patients a text message with a cancer diagnosis

A U.K. medical office mistakenly sent patients a text message with a cancer diagnosis¹

Carl Chegwin was getting in the holiday spirit by watching the movie The Santa Clause on Christmas Eve when he says he got a text message from his U.K. doctor's office diagnosing him with "aggressive lung cancer."

He sat there in shock until he was able to show the message to his mom, who also received the same text from an "NHS-NoReply" number. National Health Service England (NHS) offers general practitioner² services at Chegwin and his mother's doctor's office — the Askern Medical Practice in Doncaster.

After realizing he wasn't the only one to receive the message he began to question the text, wondering if it was "some sort of sick joke."

About 20 minutes later, the "NHS-NoReply" number messaged: "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."

Chegwin said he had never received a message from Askern Medical Practice wishing him a merry Christmas in his approximately 30 years as a patient.

"To me, that apology, it's not even an apology," he said. "It's kind of an arrogant³, nonchalant, handwaving."

A spokesperson from NHS England refused to take any questions related to the incident and redirected NPR to NHS's email. Askern Medical Practice was not available for immediate⁴ comment.

The initial message falsely diagnosing patients with terminal lung cancer asked them to fill out a DS1500 form, which allows people with terminal diseases to claim certain benefits.

While neither Chegwin nor his mother were expecting a test result for cancer, others who received the same message were. It is not clear how many people the text messages were sent to.

Chegwin said he would not be returning to the practice after this incident.

"That kind of thing breaks people and drives people to despair," he said.

1 diagnosis   

n.诊断，诊断结果，调查分析，判断

参考例句：

• His symptoms gave no obvious pointer to a possible diagnosis.他的症状无法作出明确的诊断。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做一次彻底的调查分析。

2 practitioner   

n.实践者，从事者；(医生或律师等)开业者

参考例句：

• He is an unqualified practitioner of law.他是个无资格的律师。
• She was a medical practitioner before she entered politics.从政前她是个开业医生。

3 arrogant   

adj.傲慢的，自大的

参考例句：

• You've got to get rid of your arrogant ways.你这骄傲劲儿得好好改改。
• People are waking up that he is arrogant.人们开始认识到他很傲慢。

4 immediate   

adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的

参考例句：

• His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
• We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。