NHS computer issues linked to patient harm

IT system failures have been linked to the deaths of three patients and more than 100 instances of serious harm at NHS hospital trusts in England, BBC News has found.

A Freedom of Information request also found 200,000 medical letters had gone unsent due to widespread problems with NHS computer systems.

Nearly half of hospital trusts with electronic patient systems reported issues that could affect patients. NHS England says it has invested £900m over the past two years to help introduce new and improved systems. Some hospital trusts have spent hundreds of millions of pounds on new electronic patient record (EPR) systems, but BBC News has discovered many are experiencing major problems with how they work.

Quoted in this article, Clive Flashman, Chief Digital Officer of Patient Safety Learning, said, “If you look at the sorts of serious issues that are coming out around the country where patients are being harmed, in some cases dying, as a result of these systems not working properly, I would imagine there are tens of thousands of these that are happening that probably never get discussed”.

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Source: BBC News, 30 May 2024

Read more about Patient Safety Learning's reflections on these issues and the importance of patient safety being at the heart of the development and implementation of EPRs here.