For the first time, a large NHS trust has analysed over 250,000 patient records to understand just how common name discordance really is — and what it means for care.
WHAT THE DATA SHOWS
Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust analysed 250,356 inpatient and daycase records collected between January 2025 and January 2026 to understand how often patients use a different name from the one held on record. The findings show that names are often more complicated than formal records suggest, and that asking patients what they would like to be called reveals important information that would otherwise be missed.
STRONG UPTAKE ACROSS THE TRUST
The report also shows that this approach has been adopted widely in practice. In a live snapshot across all three hospital sites, 3,835 of 4,048 patients had a preferred name recorded, equivalent to 94.7%. Thirty wards achieved 100% completion, including ICU and CCU, and the emergency department improved from 53% to 81% in ten months.
WHY ASSUMPTIONS FAIL
The data makes clear that preferred names cannot be guessed reliably. Some names, such as Christopher, are very often shortened in predictable ways, while others, such as Robert, split across different preferred forms. The report also shows that some patients registered as Margaret use Ann, and that Margaret alone generated 36 different preferred names. In patients registered as Mohammed, 38% used a completely different preferred name, with more than 120 distinct preferred names recorded in that group.
The findings are especially important for vulnerable patients. The report estimates that around 1,000 patients a year, or roughly three a day, are both cognitively vulnerable and have a registered name their family would not recognise. It also notes that these patients may be unable to correct the mistake themselves. Overall, the report shows the scale of the change, with over 235,000 preferred names captured in a single year across a busy NHS trust.
