Outrage as thousands of appointments cancelled as Princess Alexandra Hospital Trust installs new electronic record system
Health / Tue 10th Dec 2024 at 07:52am
THOUSANDS of appointments have been cancelled across the Princess Alexandra Hospital Trust as they attempt to install a new electronic patient record system.
The system called Alex Health went live on Monday November 4th.
Alex Health is their new electronic health record system. An electronic health record is an integrated digital record of a patient’s care, drawing together information from all systems that store a patient’s personal health care data.
They say it will help their clinicians and local GPs get fast and easy access to this data and save patients having to repeat information at each appointment.
However, over the past year, we have been contacted by parties concerned that the powers that be were not going to be ready to go live on November 4th.
As November 4th approached and in the subsequent days, the hospital put out a number of messages using the term “reduced capacity”.
So we put a series of Freedom of Information (FOI) request in order to establish how many appointments between October 31st and November 18th had been cancelled.
Here is the answer we received
Thursday October 31st – 61 appointments cancelled
Friday 1st November -132 appointments cancelled
Saturday 2nd November – 89 appointments cancelled
Sunday 3rd November – 42 appointments cancelled
November 4th-November 11th-4435
November 11th-November 18th-4435
We make that a total of 9,149 appointments cancelled in 19 days.
We asked for a statement from PAH.
Stephanie Lawton, chief operating officer at The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust (PAHT), said: “We introduced a new electronic health record, Alex Health, in early November, with go live taking place on 2-3 November. This is an integrated digital record of patient care, drawing together information from all health systems that currently store patient information and data. It brings significant benefits for patients, from improving safety and the sharing of information between clinicians; to reducing repeat testing, hospital attendances and admissions; with improved access to appointment booking and rescheduling; and better support for patients to manage their own care.
“Providing safe, high quality care for patients is our absolute priority, so during and after go-live, we have needed to operate at a reduced capacity for a few weeks while our people adapted to the new ways of working for Alex Health. Please be assured that patients remained able to access urgent and emergency care, maternity care, and critical services for our inpatients as usual. We rescheduled some non-urgent appointments in line with advice from our clinicians and contacted patients who were affected directly. We worked closely with other services in the community where appropriate. All patients whose appointments were cancelled are being rescheduled as a priority.
“We apologise for any inconvenience caused and appreciate the support and understanding of our community as we made this significant change to benefit our patients.”
We have contacted the Patient Panel Liaison Group at PAH. They have yet to reply.
Brian Ashton
2024-12-10 09:01:02
You have to ask. Who in their right mind implements a new system, just before the traditionally busiest time of the year?
gary roberts
2024-12-10 09:12:28
I am waiting for surgery and have been for a number of months. I have asked PALS to look at this delay but have not received a reply to date. I suspect, based on the figures in this article, I am not alone sadly.
AB
2024-12-10 09:43:56
Billions of pounds of public money have been flushed away on dysfunctional IT systems across public services in past 30+ years. It's time this incompetence was halted, snouts removed from troughs, and rigorous r+d put into decent public service IT systems.
Richard
2024-12-10 12:22:29
Gary, have you had your first outpatient appointment at PAH yet? - Because until you’ve had that first appointment, you still have the power to choose where you go! - The NHS website says - ‘If you're referred for your first outpatient appointment, in most cases you've the right to choose which hospital in England to go to. This will include many private and NHS hospitals that provide services to the NHS. You're also able to choose which consultant-led team will be in charge of your treatment, as long as that team provides the treatment you require. If you wish to be treated by a particular consultant for a procedure, you can choose to have your first outpatient appointment at the hospital where the consultant works and be treated by that consultant's team. ….This choice is a legal right.’ Check the wait times at myplannedcare.nhs.uk and find the hospital that is right for you.
Mr A k mackenzie
2024-12-10 12:24:45
Are we surprised. The levels of incompetence in the Nhs are staggering
William Warner
2024-12-10 12:50:49
It not the 1st I have not seen a Dr at eyeunit for 2 years
TonyB
2024-12-10 14:10:20
I must be one of the “lucky” ones. Four hospital departments wanted to see my body. Appointments were made around August to September; each one was made by text with a letter to follow. Before the letter arrived, another text was sent cancelling the first appointment, and a new one was made for December or February. So far, only one appointment has blown out, and there are only three more to go. One specialist told me to come back in six months. That was two years ago!
Peter
2024-12-10 14:25:06
On 4th January this year YH reported that £58000 had been spent by PAH on a conference in Las Vegas to better understand Alex Health. So 11 months later they have all these problems with it. What has been going on in the meantime. Brian Ashton makes a very valid comment, it wasn't ready why implement it at the busiest time
Seamus
2024-12-10 16:22:39
That's one way to reduce waiting times labour, just remove the waiting list. The NHS has never needed more money. It HAS needed professional people running it instead of the cartoon characters we have now.
Annon
2024-12-10 16:41:54
Please know - as a member of staff at the hospital - those of us who have to use this system day in day out, are trying our absolute best for you all. It’s been so difficult and I can imagine further teething problems will arise. But patient care will always be our priority.
Brian Ashton
2024-12-10 19:55:22
I genuinely feel very sorry for the staff that have to work with this new system, which, as far as I can tell, isn't a new system per se, but an interface bolted on top of the existing systems. Some departments at the hospital are excellent, for example the Renal team. Having implemented multiple major IT systems within several industries, I can say that they are not the easiest of projects, especially as things crawl out of the woodwork while you are implementing them that no body can for see. That being said this appears to be a all in one go implementation (from the outside this is what is appears) rather than a phased approach, and the overworked NHS staff are then left to pick up the pieces and deal with irate patients. I hope our local MP will take to the floor of the house (as he seems to do on a regular basis) and raise this issue with the Health Minister and request support from the department of health so that we don't end up with a paralysed hospital and burnt out staff, while managers congratulate themselves over a "fantastic implementation"
Barry
2024-12-10 20:46:00
Just scrap the NHS and be done with it.
Adam
2024-12-10 22:07:45
Is this the one they went to Vegas on a 50K junket for and still have made a mess. Sounds to me like lack of leadership i.e. pushing ahead with the project when clearly not ready for go live. Keep telling me the NHS is a good thing it is a national disaster and shame. Its staff are lazy and a large part of the reason it fails, focused on themselves and the institution and their presentation as angels. Be done with it, abolish it reform it alongside the French lines, and get the staff working and delivering. NO pay rises until then.
Nicholas Taylor
2024-12-11 09:03:15
Clearly it is distressing for anyone to have an appointment cancelled but It would be interesting to know what percentage of the total number of appointments made have been cancelled, why cancellations have actualy taken place (I find it hard to understand why when an appointment has been booked say with a consultant and a letter is sent to the patient, a new computer system is used as a reason for a cancellation) and in what parts of the NHS most of these have occurred. From my experience of public service, computer systems are being created by people who have no expereince of the service the computer systems are designed for and not enough training is given to staff before implementation.
Colin
2024-12-11 11:13:18
There have been several comments made reference the previous government but the blame lies with the hospital management who have tried to implement a scheme with very little training being given to staff. Teething troubles there maybe but the new system has been in place for over a month. Our MP may have been fobbed of but as any patient will tell you the the problems of getting an appointment or even checking the one they may have is a nightmare. PALS not coming back ,nothing new there
Mr Grumpy
2024-12-11 11:31:07
I feel sorry for the front line staff having to put up with all the c**p caused by those above making such idiotic decisions based on cost cutting only !!
nick
2024-12-11 21:28:24
my wife used to work at PAH and was of the opinion that this system was not good enough to deal with the workload,she did mention this as she was very experienced in her role after many years working there,guess what,she was never asked,unfortunately some people think they know it all.
Leave a Comment Below:
17 Comments for Outrage as thousands of appointments cancelled as Princess Alexandra Hospital Trust installs new electronic record system: