Critical incident as IT failure hits blood tests

Patients have been asked not to attend the blood testing service at Nottingham City Hospital (pictured) and the Queen's Medical Centre

An NHS trust has declared a "critical incident" due to an IT failure that is affecting its ability to process blood tests.

Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) NHS Trust said the IT problem in its pathology service meant it could not process tests in a "timely fashion", adding the issue was impacting hospital services and primary care.

The trust has asked patients not to attend its blood testing service at Nottingham City Hospital or the Queen's Medical Centre.

It added it was working to prioritise the "most urgent blood tests, including cancer and pre-op services".

Patients should continue to attend other scheduled appointments unless they are told otherwise.

Delays in the service will continue while staff work on a solution, the trust added.

Blood tests from within the trust and GPs are affected by the IT failure.

NUH has urged people to "use NHS services wisely" and only attend A&E if necessary as it experiences "increased pressures as a result of the incident".

A spokesperson for the NHS Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Integrated Care Board (ICB), which is responsible for local NHS services, said it became aware of the problem on Monday and had been in "regular communication" with GPs.

"The issue with the server failure is matching the patient to the blood sample, so we're asking GPs to do a manual process for urgent blood tests so they can be processed," the spokesperson said.