A CANCER patient who has made a series of complaints about her treatment at York Hospital is furious after her medical records were sent to a stranger.

Christine Johnson, 51, lodged her complaints against the hospital with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) following chemotherapy treatment at York Hospital for breast cancer.

But Mrs Johnson said the commission had added to her ordeal by sending copies of her private medical details to another patient.

Craig Fennell, who lives in Huddersfield, received Mrs Johnson’s records and she received his.

Mrs Johnson, who lives in Tadcaster, said: “I got a call from a complete stranger in Huddersfield. He was really nice, but he said he had all the letters I had written since 2008. He had all the details of what I been through in the past three years.”

Mrs Johnson said the CQC had told her it could not deal with her complaints about York Hospital because it “did not deal with individual cases”.

She said: “They phoned yesterday and they offered to come and take the information away personally.”

The CQC, with whom Mrs Johnson lodged the complaint, has apologised and described the mix up as an “error”.

However, Mrs Johnson said she was determined to make sure no other woman suffered like she did.

Diagnosed with breast cancer in 2007, Mrs Johnson said she suffered three years of poor care at York Hospital, which led to her complaint to the CQC, to which she gave intimate details of her illness and treatment.

A CQC spokesman said: “This mix-up was the result of an error by a member of our staff. We deeply regret that it happened and have apologised to both Mrs Johnson and Mr Fennell.

“Mrs Johnson sent her records to us during discussions we were having about her complaint. We had also received some information from Mr Fennell. When we went to return their respective documents to them, these were accidentally sent to each other’s address.

“When we were alerted to this mistake, we immediately arranged for one of our inspectors based in the region to collect the documents from Mrs Johnson and Mr Fennell and to return them correctly. Obviously, we respect their decision to make their own arrangements. We are now reviewing our administrative processes and will do everything possible to avoid any such mistake happening again.”

A spokesman for York Hospital said: “We are disappointed to hear of any occasion where a patient feels that the care they received fell below the standard we would expect.

“Mrs Johnson’s concerns have been outlined to us, and these are being addressed through our formal complaints procedure.”