GPs asked to check 9k delayed hospital letters for urgent patient information

Exclusive GPs in Kent have been asked to go through 9,000 hospital letters that were delayed by three weeks, to check for urgent patient actions.

The problem affecting the automatic sending of letters to GPs was caused by an error that occurred during a recent IT upgrade at Kent Community Health Foundation Trust (KCHFT), one of the largest NHS community health providers in England.

This led to a three-week delay in sending about 9,325 patient letters to practices, with the trust asking GPs to check any letters received on 29 October for crucial information, including ‘urgent requests, medication reviews and verifications of death’.

In a message to practices last week, the trust said: ‘This could mean that information you have received about some of your patients may not be in line with the current progress of their care or health needs.  

‘This could also mean you receive a higher number of letters than you would usually expect from us in one day.

‘While there was a delay in sending the letters, they will all be correctly dated to the day the clinician originally generated them.

‘Please check any letters received from Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust on Tuesday, 29 October for urgent information, such as urgent requests, medication reviews and verifications of death.’

This is the latest in a series of similar incidents affecting trusts across the country, with Pulse revealing incidents dating back to 2013 at least 18 trusts, which experienced IT failures leading to more than 724,000 letters not reaching GPs on time.

When the issue emerged, GPs warned that the incidents meant that clinical information was not passed and acted on as a result, causing a threat to patient safety and ‘anxiety’ for patients, and some practices had to deal with the delayed letters, which substantially increased their workload.

Kent LMC told Pulse that similar IT issues are becoming ‘increasingly common’ and demanded additional support for practices when these errors occur.

It added that currently practices are managing the consequences of these failures ‘without any additional support’ and with the expectation that GPs ‘will absorb this increased workload’.

LMC medical director Dr Caroline Rickard told Pulse: ‘General practice is under unprecedented pressure and the example here, referring to a delay in around 9,000 letters being sent to practices, is one of many IT errors that GP colleagues are having to manage.

‘As the NHS becomes more reliant on digital technology we are seeing IT issues become increasingly common.

‘We understand in a system as complex as the NHS errors will sometimes occur, technology will fail, and we would like to see system support for GP practices when these errors occur.

‘Currently practices are managing the consequences of these failures without any additional support and with the expectation that practices will absorb this increased workload without compromising appointment capacity.

‘This is one example of many problems leading to a large unseen burden of work at practice level.’

KCHFT deputy chief executive and chief operating officer Pauline Butterworth said: ‘We would like to apologise to our patients and GP colleagues for any inconvenience this IT issue has caused.

‘No patient harm has been identified as a result of the IT glitch, which caused a delay in letters being sent to GP surgeries.

‘The number of letters across the three weeks was 9,325. Of these, fewer than 900 were immediately identified as needing urgent follow up.

‘Our services have been working through these letters as a priority and many had already emailed practices directly if they had an urgent request for their patient.

‘This only affected letters sent to practices, it did not affect letters sent to patients, many of whom advocate on their own behalf by contacting their GP.’

Pulse has contacted Kent and Medway ICB for comment.

As part of a major investigation into this issue earlier this year, Pulse has obtained and analysed FOI data from trusts across the country which revealed issues affecting trusts in London, Surrey, Hampshire, Oxfordshire, Yorkshire, Birmingham, Northamptonshire, Nottingham, Newcastle and Somerset.

And an LMC affected by one of the failures warned that GP practices should know that this is a ‘major patient safety issue’, and that if it isn’t sorted out, someone will pin it on them.