PRIVATE and confidential medical reports revealing patients' intimate details have been sent to a garden centre by mistake.

Over the last two years up to 50 faxes from GP surgeries and hospital departments across Kent have been faxed to the Brookside Garden Centre at East Peckham.

They were intended to go to Thornhills Medical Group at Larkfield.

The mix-up has happened because the numbers are the same, except for the area code.

The part-owner of the garden centre, Terry Shead, told the Kent Messenger about the blunder after he received a recent fax from Maidstone Hospital's A&E department.

It included intimate medical details about someone he knew.

He said: "It has been going on for a really long time, and they often include very private information."

Mr Shead said he alerted health chiefs last year and was assured urgent action would be taken to stop the faxes being sent.

A spokesman for West Kent Primary Care Trust, said this week: "We take this very seriously and are investigating it urgently to see what’s happened here."

The Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust said: "We are sorry Mr Shead is still receiving this information and will re-emphasise to staff the importance of checking fax numbers."