A MAJOR blunder led to confidential letters about hundreds of children being sent to the wrong addresses.

Confused Swindonians reported receiving private correspondence from NHS England with details of flu jab appointments for children – but the families mentioned did not live there.

One worried parent who wished to remain anonymous told the Adver: “I’m concerned because my son has an unusual first name and surname so I don’t like the thought of his details landing on someone else’s doorstep.

“It’s worrying that this will cause further confusion and delay with receiving his flu vaccination. We’re already in December and he hasn’t received the usual reminder,

“Maybe someone else has it now, it could be anywhere really. I wonder if this will become a permanent problem and if the hospital now has wrong addresses for all these children.

“Will all correspondence sent from the hospital have incorrect information?”

Dozens of comments on a private Facebook group seen by the Adver expressed concern about the widespread problem.

One person said: “Wow, looks like they’ve got a massive issue on their hands.”

Another added: “This sounds like a lot of wasted money on correspondence and missed appointments. Well done NHS admin, wasting money that would be better spent on care.”

Many decided to simply return the letter and notify the hospital that the information for the address was wrong.

Director of NHS South Central and West’s child health information service Sue Trinder said: “We wrote to parents and carers of children aged three across Bath and North East Somerset, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Swindon encouraging them to take up a free flu vaccine at their GP surgery.

“Unfortunately, due to a mail merge error, the addresses and names of the children were mixed up, resulting in households being sent an invitation for the wrong child.

“We would like to sincerely apologise to all parents for this error and reassure them that the letter contained no other personal information other than the name of a child.

“We would like to assure parents that all children’s records held by us have not been impacted during this process and nor does it affect records held by your local hospital and other healthcare providers.

“SCW takes our data protection responsibilities seriously and are investigating this matter thoroughly, and we are actively amending our processes to ensure this does not happen again.

“We are writing to all the parents concerned and those who have an eligible three-year-old will receive a follow-up flu vaccination letter shortly. We would ask all recipients to dispose of the previous letter in as secure a manner as possible.”

Any parent who has received a letter with the incorrect name and has concerns should contact the CHIS service on 01235 431313.