A Strood GP has spoken exclusively to Kent Current about being left unable to contact patients over Christmas because of a software malfunction.

Dr Julian Spinks, of Court View Surgery, spoke about how problems with NHS Digital’s SNOMED CT system left him unable to arrange follow-up appointments with his patients.

SNOMED CT is a new system being used nationwide by NHS staff as a record of all medical terms and patients that are being cared for; it is hoped that it will be fully implemented by April this year.

Dr Spinks described how the new system had problems right from the beginning.

“The introduction of the code’s first version has led to problems with practises being unable to search and recall the right patients.

“When we swapped from the old to the new codes, they tried to convert old files to the new format but the conversion did not work properly and so we’ve had to roll back to a previous version of the programme.

“It caused difficulties because we are constantly having to search for patients one by one rather than just having their files on the database – it increases our workload.”

The issues didn’t stop there though. He went on to describe how December 2018 was disastrous.

“At the latter end of 2018, heading into Christmas, they moved to the new codes for searches right across the country, but it broke.

“They told us it would take three months to have the system fixed. That meant three months where people might be missed for recalls because the code wasn’t working.

“Our software company rolled back the technology recently on a temporary basis until the conversion is fixed nationally but we are so busy already. The last thing we need is to be in a position where we have to search independently for each patient.”

At a time when one in four patients wait a week to see their GPs, the NHS is spread thin.

The problems with SNOMED CT exacerbated the situation.

Pulse reported in December that NHS Digital was aware that one of the QOF Read Codes – the information the system uses – had incorrect data. It logged that patients with thrombocytosis, an elevated platelet count, were suffering with cancer.

NHS Digital decided not to amend this mistake.

Dr Spinks said that while mistakes like these can be handled by medical professionals, there is a risk that the mistakes can slip through the system.

“Say for example someone is misdiagnosed with cancer,” Dr Spinks said. “They aren’t actually suffering, but if they then go to apply for a mortgage and part of the application requires life insurance, then they are far less likely to get it because their medical record had cancer logged incorrectly in it.”

More recently, GPs received an email titled “Re: QOF 2018/19 – Cervical Screening”. This email outlined how the system catalogued all women who needed recalling for smear tests and considered them ‘results’, which gave the impression that each woman had already had their test.

Despite the problems, NHS Digital’s website claims that SNOMED CT offers several benefits, including: vital information sharing across health care providers around the country, greater depth of details for clinical professionals and reduced risk of misinterpretations.

To this end, Dr Spinks was reluctant to dismiss the system entirely.

“It’s too early to know if it will be a problem or not but these next few months will be a crunch point.

“This is where the less common problems crop up because the system is rolled out more universally. The NHS isn’t famous for its IT and I wouldn’t hold its breath that it will work perfectly.

“Matt Hancock wants everything to be electronic and there’s nothing wrong with that as long as it produces what you want. He thinks it’s a simple process, but it just isn’t. This is well over a decade in the works and still not there yet.”