It has recently come to light that at least 1,788 patients and perhaps many more may have been harmed following a report by the National Audit Office (NAO). More than 700,000 unprocessed documents were mislaid, including blood and urine results, biopsies, treatment plans, child protection notes and even cancer diagnoses. It is predicted that the number of patients affected will rise as one third of the 709,000 documents have not yet been reviewed.
NHS Shared Business Services (SBS) (owned by the Department of Health and Sopra Steria, a private company) left 700,000 NHS letters to pile up in a warehouse, something which the Health Secretary was aware of as far back as March 2016. SBS operates a redirection service throughout the country and a significant amount of mail sent between GP’s and hospitals was not received by patients. NHS England has stated:
“NHS England was deeply concerned to be belatedly informed by SBS in March 2016 about its backlog of unprocessed correspondence. We immediately set up a team, including clinical experts, to manage the incident, and all relevant correspondence has now been sent back to GPs for review.”
“None of the patients whose cases have been reviewed to date have been harmed by the delay in correspondence.”
It is estimated by NHS England that the cost to the taxpayer will be at least £6.6 million.
The British Medical Association (BMA) has warned that some patients may have had diagnosis of their illness delayed or may have been taking drugs unnecessarily. Richard Vautrey, BMA GP Committee Chair said:
“This is a very serious incident, it should never have happened and it’s an example of what happens when the NHS tries to cut costs by inviting private companies to do work which they don’t do properly…”
“That might mean repeat prescriptions, which would be unnecessary… and it might mean delay in diagnosis. If that happened it’s at best an inconvenience to the patient, and at worst there’s a risk of patient harm.”
What is most concerning is that patient safety may have been put at risk. This incident also raises the question of whether privatisation of NHS service, whether clinical or administrative, is a step in the wrong direction. With the focus of private firms being profit, is privatisation putting lives at risk?
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