By John HowardA WOMAN who was badly injured in a road accident has spoken of her anger after Royal Mail lost vital medical records that were sent recorded delivery.

By John Howard

A WOMAN who was badly injured in a road accident has spoken of her anger after Royal Mail lost vital medical records that were sent recorded delivery.

The accident happened as Naomi Milward was traveling to Lake Nakuru, Kenya, for a week-long holiday to see wildlife in the area.

Miss Milward, from Bacton, near Stowmarket, was left unconscious for up to an hour after the accident, which involved a tourist van and a car.

Three children of Kenyan archbishop Stephen Ondiek died in the accident and Miss Milward, the only tourist passenger in the van, was airlifted to a hospital in Nairobi.

The accident happened in November 2002 and Miss Milward, 33, has since had five operations to reconstruct her face, and is about to undergo surgery again soon.

But she has been left outraged after her medical records - of which there are no copies and which are vital to her ongoing treatment and for a legal case she is bringing after the accident - were lost by Royal Mail.

Miss Milward, who is the daughter of Mid Suffolk district councillor Carol Milward, has taken the matter up with Royal Mail and Postwatch and said she was determined not to let it lie.

“The x-ray scans were lost within London when they were posted to a medical expert. It was a big packet, quite heavy, with images of my face, legs, arms, all originals from Nairobi,” she said.

“The service from the Royal Mail has been awful. You get standard replies, you get the feeling it is basically “Tough”. They offered me some stamps for compensation, which I still have not received,” she said.

“Apparently you get no guarantees with recorded delivery, you can't claw back the money you have spent making calls, for your wasted time.

“I am angry about the fact they lost them, I think it is disgusting. I've lost all faith in Royal Mail and people should be aware of the limitations of recorded delivery.”

A spokeswoman for the Royal Mail said: “Only 0.005% of all the postbag fails to be delivered, it's a really, really tiny proportion and this is really unusual.

“Some of the mail lost will also be because they were wrongly addressed, this really is very rare.

“Recorded delivery means there is some proof of posting. Special delivery is for specifically for valuable items and has varied levels of compensation, depending on the insurance you take out at the time. This really is very unusual and we do apologise.”

john.howard@eadt.co.uk