Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the level of misdiagnosis by NHS employees and locums in hospital pathology departments.

We do not routinely collect this information and we have not made an estimate.

Whilst the vast majority of patients receive safe and effective care, any incident of misdiagnosis can have a significant impact on patients and their families, which is why have we are committed to a systematic approach of understanding and learning from avoidable causes of patient harm. Since 2016, the National Health Service has been creating 29 national pathology networks that bring together clinical expertise in regional hubs. This will deliver the highest-quality service for patients and allow the use of cutting-edge technology to increase the speed and accuracy of diagnostics.