IT failure leaves 30,000 hospital letters unsent

A technical issue with the electronic patient record system was discovered in 2024

A technical failure at a hospital trust in Surrey led to about 30,000 emergency department letters not being sent to GPs, a Freedom of Information request by the BBC has revealed.

Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust, which runs East Surrey Hospital in Redhill, said it followed a technical issue with the electronic patient record (EPR) system that was discovered in January 2024.

It follows a BBC investigation into the scale of problems with NHS IT systems that are used to manage patients’ medical records.

NHS managers said they were working closely with GP practices to ensure all outstanding documents were being properly communicated.

'Immediate action taken'

Last year, a Nottingham hospital trust failed to send more than 400,000 digital letters and documents, and Newcastle Hospitals also failed to send 24,000 letters.

A spokeswoman for the Surrey trust said: “In January 2024, through our governance processes, we discovered a technical issue within our EPR system which meant a proportion of emergency department patient discharge letters were not being automatically sent to patient GPs.

“We took immediate action to solve the issue and mitigate the impact on affected patients – including working closely with local GP practices to identify and escalate the patients with the most urgent care needs, as well as ensuring all outstanding documentation is being communicated appropriately.”

This year, the Surrey hospital had two critical incidents after power failures.

In February, the hospital had a power failure in its intensive care and high dependency units. Patients in both units were cared for elsewhere in the hospital, the trust said.

In March, a power outage saw a major incident declared and ambulances diverted to other locations. Some non-urgent operations and treatments were cancelled.