GP leaders seek compensation after trust IT faults disrupted service
Exclusive GP leaders in Nottinghamshire are seeking compensation for GPs affected by issues caused by trust IT systems over the past year.
In a letter seen by Pulse, Nottinghamshire LMCs told GPs that it was ‘working with other LMCs nationally’ to explore the possibility of legal action as a result of the issues.
The letter mentioned ‘ongoing’ issues with Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust’s (NUH) laboratory information management system (LIMS).
One Nottinghamshire GP, who did not want to be named, told Pulse their practice experienced delayed and staggered pathology results received from NUH, with related blood tests arriving over multiple days and sometimes duplicated. They estimated it took two to three hours’ worth of administrative work a day to address this.
Earlier this year, the LMC demanded a ‘detailed’ investigation into a flawed IT system rollout which led to delayed blood tests and cancelled GP appointments across the county.
The introduction of a LIMS in pathology departments at NUH and Sherwood Forest Hospitals led to blood test results being delayed, forcing GPs to cancel appointments due to the extra time needed to look through the results. GPs told Pulse they had to go through hundreds of duplicates.
The LMC letter said: ‘We advised a few months ago that practices should report on OPEL (state red or black) if dealing with these results returning is causing significant extra work and we also defended your right (and obligation perhaps) to reduce your appointment capacity accordingly to free up time to cope.
‘We know of course that this is uncomfortable for many practices as it may only delay rather than reduce demand by doing so.
‘We are also working with other LMCs nationally who have been similarly affected by breakdowns in new system rollouts to see if we can jointly take legal action and secure compensation for practices.’
It added that it had ‘written to the local ICB asking for reparations’ and that the commissioner would respond to the request ‘within the next week’.
A spokesperson for Nottingham and Nottinghamshire ICB said: ‘The ICB, NUH, Sherwood Forest Hospitals (SFH), Notts LMC and general practice colleagues are continuing to work together in response to the changes to the way blood test results are provided to general practice, following the implementation of the new LIMS system in the pathology departments at NUH and SFH earlier this year.
‘Whilst the change was necessary due to the former system becoming obsolete, we acknowledge the impact this has had on many of our practices. Some progress has been made to mitigate the effect on general practice, and we continue to work together as a collective on a number of other potential solutions to reduce the impact.
‘We are committed to carrying out a full review of the way the implementation has been managed to learn any lessons and consider anything which can be done differently in future.’
Pulse understands that Leeds LMC was ‘coordinating’ the national effort to secure compensation, but the LMC declined to comment.
Last year, Leeds Teaching Hospital Trust’s upgrade to pathology systems led to tens of thousands of blood tests being lost or delayed.
Practices reported ‘significant extra workload’ to correct ‘delayed’ blood test results, ‘lost’ or ‘discarded’ blood test samples, and staggered delays within test sets meaning reports were unrepresentative.
A West Yorkshire ICB spokesperson told Pulse: ‘We appreciate the upgrades to Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust’s Pathology Laboratory Information Management System, made as part of a regional upgrade, caused significant disruption for colleagues in primary care and patients, and the NHS West Yorkshire ICB in Leeds continues to seek assurance on ongoing development plans.
‘However, we also recognise that the upgrades were vital to continuing service delivery. The ICB has not been approached with any recent proposals for compensation regarding this issue.’
Earlier this year, 19 of the 24 practices in West Suffolk were left to deal with thousands of duplicate pathology results following a ‘software failure’ at West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust, which had ‘significant knock-on effects’ on practices.
