Hospital trust blames IT error for losing 24,000 doctors’ letters

Correspondence includes letters from senior doctors with instructions for patients’ post-discharge care

File image: Newcastle Hospitals said it would contact patients if health concerns arise out of the missing letters (PA Archive)

Newcastle Hospitals says an issue with its computer systems means some 24,000 doctors’ letters were never sent to their intended recipients.

Martin Wilson, the chief operating officer for Newcastle Hospitals, has issued a public apology after a BBC News report revealed the “significant” problem dates back as far as 2018, and that some letters still remain unsent.

Most of the letters were written by senior healthcare professionals at specialist clinics, detailing steps patients should take to support their recovery after discharge.

Other letters included the results of scans, X-rays or blood tests, according to the report.

Mr Wilson said in a statement to The Independent that the trust was taking “immediate steps to address the issue”. “We sincerely apologise for any anxiety or inconvenience this may cause,” he said.

The trust said it was reviewing 24,000 documents from its electronic records and that this includes “both correspondence and internal documents”. It said this accounts for less than 0.3 per cent of all contact with patients.

“If any concerns are identified, we will inform patients and their GPs directly,” Mr Wilson said. “We are taking this issue very seriously and are working quickly to put things right.”

According to the BBC, staff had raised concerns about delays in sending out letters following a routine inspection by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in the summer

Following another review of the trust's consultants, it was revealed that the letters remained unsent in their e-record accounts. Consultants had repeatedly raised complaints about the slow and hard-to-use electronic patient record system over the years, a source at Newcastle Hospitals told the BBC.

The trust, in a letter to the staff, explained that letters drafted by one member of staff have to be signed off by a second clinician before being sent. If not signed off correctly, the letters then end up in a consultant's document folder and remain unsent.

The trust said it would immediately deal with a 6,000-letter backlog from last year alone and instructed the staff to record any resulting incidents of patient harm.

Sarah Dronsfield, CQC's interim director of operations in the North, said the commission took "immediate action to request further detail from the trust to understand the extent to which people may be at risk".

The commission said it was monitoring the issue closely and the trust could be subjected to inspection at any time if it had concerns.