'There is a backlog of hundreds of thousands of pieces of clinical correspondence that have not been directed to GPs as a result of NHS England's failure to resolve problems associated with their contract with Capita, Government auditors have found...'the NAO also found that attempts to resolve the issue to be 'paused'. It added: ’This followed an incident in which NHS England sent clinical correspondence containing the child protection notes of three children to a practice without showing the name of the practice in the address. The package was delivered to a supermarket with the same postcode, which then passed the package to the practice.’ Following the incident, NHS England revised its procedures...NHS England has said that it will publish a review detailing the amount of patient harm caused by the backlog of correspondence by April,'

http://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/home/finance-and-practice-life-news/gp-practices-missing-400000-clinical-letters-due-to-capita-handover/20036099.article

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/02/02/nao_probes_capita_contract_clinical_correspondence_backlog/

Capita are pretty much immune to everything. The government announced that they plan to put a government agency in charge of PPC regulation instead of self governing themselves. Capita complained, the complaint fell on deaf ears, so capita announced they plan to close down parking eye.

Then theres the NHS issue, governement back office issue such as the UC helpline, various employer pension schemes around the country and many more things. They are too deeply ingrained in the government for anything to happen.

Capita are pretty much immune to everything. ......They are too deeply ingrained in the government for anything to happen.

spot on

and if they go belly up, who'll suffer in the long run; joe public as usual.

but, the majority voted for this over the years

You cant say anyone voted for this because it was never a manifesto issue.

The problem is that our MP's dont have either experience or sense in any quantity, our civil servants arent up to fighting over cntracts with the lawyers that the companies use, the peopel running the hospital trusts shouldnt be entrusted to run a proverbial whelk stall and we pay for it all.

Whe it all gets dragged up the politicians and apparatchiks still dont understand the problem and what caused it so we get a load of waffle and again the poor public pays for the errors. this is the 4th big outsourcing co to hit the buffers and as wit theothers there has been massive overcharging and inefficiency for waht has been achieved. I dont think that doing everything in house is the answwer but employing expertise on a permanent basis so yu understand the probelm to begin with would be a very important step.

The the cuilfail Tunnel at Lewes was built it leaked like a sieve and gave massive problems with water but also with drilling into the flint in the chalk, The govy blamed the company, the cmpany blamed the govt for notgiving them a proper spec for the job and lawyers were hired and eventually both sides blamed the weather, unusual conditions etc and settlement of costs came out of the public purse.

The govet didnt employ a single engineering geologist and nor did the company as they thought they knew it all. well the chalk there sits on gault clay and whe it rains the clay turns to almost jelly causing the chalk to relax and crack into blocks which lets the water run down a long way. Standard 3rd year geology degree stuff Used to take students to stare at it when it was being dug and also the landslips at Folkstone that are about the same principle) but even when it got to the lawyers shouting at each other no-one asked for expert opinion as to what had happened.

So capita have all the knowledge and now it cant be taken back in house for school salary runs, govt pensions etc because they no longet have the staff or expertise to do it

Interestingly I had a patient ask for their records recently (no problem) but in the course of the conversation it turned out they were moving to England and had been to enquire about registering at a new GP practice. They were advised to bring their own records as the English practice had seen delays nearing 12 months with Capita handling the transport of notes. Here in Wales it takes a week or sometimes two if you miss the delivery slot.

We’ve also received some of the notes that were found languishing in a warehouse - some of which were years old and no longer relevant or about patients that had since moved on or passed away.

So, when people grumble about the NHS and think that a privatised system would be better I can’t help but think of examples like these.

how does nhs wales operate, do they use capita?

Hi Ford, no thankfully Capita are largely absent from the Welsh NHS.

The records transfer in Wales is carried out by the shared services partnership which is a body that spans of of the Welsh health boards. So, if a patient transferred from us to another local practice there’s a remarkably efficient process:

Patient registers in new practice

New practice updates their clinical system with patient details

This automatically notifies SSP

This prompts a ‘deduction’ notice on our system

Administrative staff get the message and collate / print patient records

Electronic records are transferred via an electronic transfer system to give the new practice access to vital info on conditions / medication and treatments.

Paper records are collected once a week and returned to central records repository

Central records put them in the next weeks delivery for new practice

Records arrive at new practice and are checked for accuracy against electronically transferred info.

hi

thanks, interesting.

having a look at capita site about being awarded the contract where they said would involve 'significant savings' for nhs england.

then seeing the links about how much it then costs the nhs/ nao etc to review for evidence of harm

wonder if the 'savings' end up outweighing the costs, not taking into account any potential harm. probably?

You cant say anyone voted for this because it was never a manifesto issue.

 

i see what you say.

but, wouldn't most know indirectly that the Cons MO since say '80 on would involve considerable outsourcing/pfi. and even the alternative red conservatives Lablair after?

seems between the two, there wasn't much alternative.

apparently, nhs dentistry have for awhile now been asking nhs england to put things back 'inhouse'

http://www.dentistry.co.uk/2018/02/07/fresh-calls-nhs-services-taken-away-capita/

to be objective, the NAO info

'The NAO has investigated how NHS England has handled a backlog of 374,000 items of unprocessed clinical correspondence....'

https://www.nao.org.uk/report/investigation-into-clinical-correspondence-handling-in-the-nhs/

Can confirm that this correspondence was. It just limited to England but affected people who were treated cross-borders also. We received several clinic letters / diagnoses / discharge letters for patients who’d been treated in England but live in Wales.

Can confirm that this correspondence was. It just limited to England but affected people who were treated cross-borders also. We received several clinic letters / diagnoses / discharge letters for patients who’d been treated in England but live in Wales.

I can already visualise the response to a complaint:

“It is a National Health Service (NHS) not a GB or U.K. health service.

So, dear patient, it is your fault for moving across a national border. Different systems, you see.

So, even though we made you cross a border to receive treatment, it is still your fault for living the wrong side of a border.

However, we take all complaints seriously, especially if it is an election year, until we’ve been voted back in, when we forget about our promises until the next election”.