Patient safety inquiry launched over lost letters

The NHS has launched a patient safety inquiry after a private contractor lost more than 28,000 pieces of confidential medical correspondence.

The Guardian has revealed that IT company Cerner 28,563 letters detailing discussions at outpatient appointments were not sent to GPs because of a mistake. As a result, NHS bosses are trying to find out if any patients have been harmed.

The letters, which should have been sent by doctors at Barnet and Chase Farm hospitals in north London to GPs after consultations with 22,144 patients between June last year and last month, have prompted concern among GPs and patient representatives.

The Guardian has seen a leaked memo in which Caroline Clarke, the chief executive of the Royal Free London group of hospitals, which include Barnet and Chase Farm, says that the 28,563 letters were not sent because of ‘a technical error, which happened when our IT partner, Cerner, implemented a customised update on the system we use for distributing outpatient summary letters’.

Rachel Power, the chief executive of the Patients Association, said: “Patients who have attended these two hospitals will now be very worried about whether their care might have been compromised by this IT bungle. We know that sharing information to join up patient care is a major weakness of the NHS, so it is very disappointing to see that this failure took over six months to be detected. All affected patients must be told what this means for them as soon as possible.”

Martin Marshall, the chair of the Royal College of GPs, said the incident highlighted again the risks of private companies being given contracts to carry out work on the NHS’s behalf.

The Royal Free decided the mistake constituted a patient safety ‘serious incident’ and reported the mistake to NHS England and NHS Improvement, which scrutinises patient safety.