A man waited for two-and-a-half hours’ to find out his crucial cancer surgery had been cancelled. And on the very same day, at a different hospital, his wife claims she was forced to recount her medical history from memory as staff ‘didn’t have any details for her’.
The couple’s ordeal comes amid an ongoing IT crisis plaguing four major hospitals across Greater Manchester. The IT glitches have continued for two weeks, forcing appointments and surgeries to be cancelled, as well as causing A&E delays, according to multiple NHS staff.
Experts have been flown in from the U.S.A to find a fix, and the hospitals have moved to a paper system, with documents being handwritten. But in the meantime, patients and staff have told the Manchester Evening News that they are suffering the fallout of ‘severe delays’ to patient care.
Husband and wife Douglas Walton and Caroline Lingard, both 61, were due to have appointments at different hospitals on May 24. Douglas was due to have a vital cancer operation, which would prevent some of the life-changing symptoms he was suffering on his bladder, after being diagnosed with prostate cancer three years ago.
Douglas, who is self-employed, was ‘grateful’ to learn he’d been given an operation date and took time off work to get the pre-operation checks done and to self-isolate before the surgery. But when he arrived at North Manchester General Hospital the morning of the appointment, he was kept ‘waiting for two-and-a-half hours’, before being told to go home.
Staff told the patient they could not do any of the operations for the three patients waiting that morning because their IT systems were not working, according to Caroline. “He had the pre-op, had to isolate on Sunday and Monday,” worried wife Caroline told the Manchester Evening News . “I drove him to get to the hospital for 7am on Tuesday.
Have you been affected by the IT chaos? Call the M.E.N. newsdesk on 0161 211 2920 or email helena.vesty@reachplc.com
“About two-and-a-half hours later, I get a call from him saying staff can’t do anyone’s operations because the IT systems are down and the consultant couldn’t see their notes. I know it’s not the hospital or staff’s fault, but why didn’t they just tell us not to come?
“These systems had been down for a few days already, my husband was left asking why they didn’t pull his medical notes from a physical file ready for the operation if they knew the IT issues would be a problem.
“He was never told not to go in, so was just stressed and worried for two-and-a-half hours. He could have gone to work for the previous days he’d had to have off.”
“I had urine and blood pressure swab tests, isolated for two days and starved for 24 hours. I waited for two hours only to be told along with two other patients that they couldn’t operate because they couldn’t get IT information,” continued Douglas.
“I stated they knew they had this problem a week ago and that they could have notified us not to turn up or draw our case files from the record rooms the old fashioned way. But nothing was in place to do this.
“I am one very angry, dissatisfied and stressed cancer patient.”
The Prestwich couple were left anxious that the dad-of five could be left at the ‘bottom of the pile’ after the unexpected cancellation, as other patients who have faced delays or suffered cancellations have told the M.E.N. “We were so grateful to get an operation date so soon. We knew we were really lucky. Now it’s worrying and stressful,” added Caroline.
On the very same day, Caroline was also struck by the sweeping IT issues, as she was booked in for a surgery aftercare appointment at Bury’s Fairfield General Hospital.
“I had a very similar experience the same day for a follow up on my cataract surgery,” said the mum-of-one. “I rang before I went to make sure it was OK to go after hearing what Douglas had been through.
“But when I arrived, they didn’t have any details for me - nothing about any allergies, any medications I’d been on. I had to give it all then and there.”
On Wednesday, June 1, they heard that Douglas’ surgery had been rescheduled for the next week. It's understood that the IT glitches at Fairfield General , Rochdale Infirmary, the Royal Oldham, and North Manchester General have disrupted even the most basic tasks. The systems that have been down include those storing patients’ medical records, meaning doctors cannot go ahead with surgeries and appointments.
The IT applications used to retrieve test results, including blood, MRI and CT scans, have also been out of action, medics have told the M.E.N. Ambulances have also been seen queueing up outside the affected hospitals' emergency departments.
Although the Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust (NCA), which operates three out of the four sites, has reported that some systems have come back online. It also has ruled out any cyber-attack, malware or hacking as the cause, though the trust has not shared any initial findings about what triggered the disruption for patients and staff, saying the 'main focus is restoration of services, once that's done detailed root cause analysis work will take place'.
The trust has declared critical incidents at all three of its hospitals but 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 NCA said: “We would again extend apologies to any patient and their family whose care or experience has fallen below our usual standards.
“Our staff are continuing to work incredibly hard to resolve the IT issues affecting our hospitals and community services in Oldham, Bury, Rochdale and at North Manchester General. Many staff are going above and beyond, and being incredibly patient, for which we are very grateful.
“We have made some good progress to fix some of the critical systems affected, and these systems are being released to colleagues when they have been tested and approved for use. This process will continue for the forthcoming days and weeks as we prioritise our key clinical systems to maintain patient safety.”
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