A pub landlord was bombarded with calls from patients ringing about their MRI tests after a hospital blunder.

Steve Francis says around 30 came through in a two-and-a-half hour period in a “disgusting” breach of data protection.

The error happened after Maidstone Hospital mistakenly linked his number to their system, after the 43-year-old rang the site on Monday morning to chase up his appointment date for his own MRI scan.

Mr Francis, who is landlord of the Coach House pub in Queen Anne Road, also in the town, explained: “I was on the phone to the hospital and had an 01622 number come up and thought it might have been my girls’ school, but it was a woman trying to find out about her MRI scan.

“Then I got another call from the same number, which was really weird. It turned out to be the hospital number but it was patients ringing me.

“I had a voicemail and when I listened to it someone was leaving their name, date of birth, address and that she had an MRI scan six weeks ago.

“Every time I listened to a voicemail or spoke to someone trying to explain who I was I was getting a new call.

“My wife tried ringing the MRI department and it came through to me. I spoke to a few people and explained I was a patient and there had been an error.

“Later on a woman from the hospital rang and I explained I wasn’t anything to do with MRIs or the hospital and was a patient. All she could say was ‘you are joking?’”

About two-and-a-half hours after the first call, the Maidstone father’s phone stayed silent.

He added: “They obviously found out the problem, but I still had these voicemails and missed calls. I thought to myself should I ring them and explain as they were waiting for information on their MRIs, but they probably would’ve thought I was a scammer, so I left it.

“The few people I did speak to who phoned up were absolutely mortified – I could have been some lunatic who had their information.”

Mr Francis hasn’t heard from the hospital since or had an apology. He claims when he tried to ring the Trust’s Patient Advice & Liason Service (PALS), he couldn’t get through.

“It’s a shambles,” he continued. “The whole thing was horrendous, disgusting. I couldn’t believe it.

“People were waiting for six weeks for their results – they don’t want to hear from me about it.”

A spokesman for Maidstone Hospital said it was an isolated incident, adding: “We are aware of an error in our telephone systems earlier this week which resulted in a number of our patients having their calls redirected to Mr Francis.

“We have contacted Mr Francis and those involved to apologise. The issue has been rectified and we are working to make sure there is no recurrence.”