Hospitals’ IT failure is now a ‘critical incident’

STAFF across four of Greater Manchester’s hospitals say they are struggling to ‘access their patients’ medical records, electronically prescribe medications and reliably see test results.’

The concerns come as four hospitals have been hit by major IT failures lasting nearly a week, after problems began on Wednesday, May 18.

Concerned staff say the IT crash has ‘affected every part’ of Royal Oldham, Fairfield General, North Manchester General and Rochdale Infirmary, as ‘patients are turning up for results that cannot be seen’ on computer screens.

Yesterday, the Royal Oldham, Fairfield and Rochdale declared critical incidents as staff continue to wrangle with the outages.

Last night, North Manchester General Hospital also confirmed it is dealing with a business continuity incident – one step down from a critical incident.

Hospital bosses warned the public to avoid the Royal Oldham Hospital’s emergency department unless urgent and life-threatening.

The Royal Oldham’s A&E department is one of the worst affected units which have been hit by a slew of IT system problems since last Wednesday, trust chiefs have confirmed to the M.E.N.

The announcement comes amid waits of ‘11 hours’ being reported by patients at the A&E, while sources have warned that the pressure at the hospital may not relent for at least another ‘24 to 48 hours.’

The IT failures across the four Greater Manchester hospitals have caused ‘severe delays’ to patient care, according to staff.

Multiple hospital sources tell the M.E.N. that systems used to access blood test, X-ray, MRI and CT scan results are not functioning correctly, meaning clinicians are unable to share the information with patients who could have ‘life-threatening’ illnesses.

The IT issues are causing delays with electronic prescribing and getting hold of patients’ medical records.

With ‘no access to previous clinic letters on computers,’ patients are ‘having to give their own histories,’ say staff.

Appointments are also understood to be being postponed by the IT concerns.

“It’s affected every part of the hospital,” said a staff member at one of the affected hospitals, speaking on condition of anonymity.

A senior hospital source has also told the M.E.N. that the continued sweeping outages are putting ‘significant strain on staff and patients,’ despite continuity plans which have moved wards from an online setup to a paper system.

The ‘inability to reliably see results and the failure of other systems is impacting patient care,’ continued the source.

‘Mitigating action’ is being taken to keep patients safe, which hospital bosses say remains their top priority.

Oldham’s emergency department was already ‘really busy,’ which has been ‘compounded with IT issues,’ leading trust chiefs to ask the public to ‘think carefully before they attend A&E for minor ailments.’

Yesterday, the Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust (NCA) declared the critical incidents at the Royal Oldham Hospital, Fairfield General and Rochdale Infirmary, as the hospitals struggle with the delays caused by the IT concerns.

But the trust is still asking patients to come to hospital if they need to, and keep their appointments unless they are contacted to say otherwise.

Dr Chris Brookes, Deputy CEO and Chief Medical Officer for the Northern Care Alliance NHS Trust, said: “We are still working hard to resolve the significant IT issues that have been affecting some of our digital systems at our hospitals at Oldham, Bury and Rochdale, as well as North Manchester General Hospital which is run by Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust. Salford Royal is unaffected.

“We are doing everything we can to fix the IT issues and to limit disruption to patients and our services.”