Coronavirus: Disease Control

(asked on 1st July 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to prevent letters on shielding being sent in error to people who are recently deceased; and what steps are being taken to ensure that the database being used for such correspondence is up to date.


Answered by
Jo Churchill Portrait
Jo Churchill
Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
This question was answered on 21st July 2020

The NHS Shielded Patient List is reviewed daily against a national database of patient information known as the Personal Demographics Service which is updated by general practice, hospitals and information from the General Register Office. Patients who have sadly died are removed from the NHS Shielded Patient List at this point.

Sending a letter to the entire list will always carry the risk that some patients may have died before receiving a letter. This is because there are a few days’ delay between the list being generated, the letters being printed, and those letters arriving with patients. We apologise if this has caused distress to any family members.

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