NHS offers healthy people Covid vaccine after ‘hilarious’ height error on patients’ medical records

Reports have surfaced of NHS patients being offered the coronavirus vaccine early after their height was listed in centimetres on their medical records.

It follows a tweet by Liam Thorp, political editor of the Liverpool Echo, on Wednesday, in which he revealed the mishap behind his invitation to receive the jab.

He wrote: “So I’m not getting a vaccine next week – was feeling weird about why I’d been selected ahead of others so rang GP to check. Turns out they had my height as 6.2cm rather than 6ft 2in, giving me a BMI of 28,000.

Short for Body Mass Index, the BMI uses a person’s height and weight to determine whether a person’s weight is ‘healthy’.

A figure between 18.5 and 24.9 is considered the “healthy weight range”, while one between 30 and 39.9 is classified as being in “the obese range”.

Thorp went on to joke that he had “put on a few pounds” during lockdown, “but not that many”, before describing himself as a “morbidly obese pancake”.

“Don’t mind me guys, I’m just here living my 6.2cm, 17.5 stone best life.

“When I told my mum I had been classed in the clinically obese category, she said ‘well perhaps this is the wake-up call you need’,” he said.

It soon emerged that others had also experienced a similar mishap with their height measurements:

However, most Twitter users responded with laughter and saw the funny side of Thorp’s situation:

Others responded to share their own bizarre encounters with incorrect medical information:

The NHS vaccination programme has clearly reached new... heights.