London (Parliament Politics Magazine) – 36 cautions have been issued by coroners in England and Wales this year over the inadequate sharing of NHS patient information, with some patients failing due to a lack of accurate information.
Problems induced by conflicting IT systems, limited access to medical records and obstacles to sharing information outside the NHS indicate staff constantly struggle to access facts about the patients they are treating.
How is poor information-sharing impacting patient safety in NHS?
In one case, a three-year-old boy passed away of streptococcal infection after contracting chicken pox. An NHS 111 adviser was ignorant of the child’s Down’s Syndrome, which greatly expanded his clinical vulnerability. As a result, the consultant did not tell the child’s mother to take him to hospital instantly. The boy became unresponsive and passed away the next day.
Further, an 11-year-old died because critical information wasn’t communicated when he was handed over by under-pressure attendants from the ambulance to A&E. The IT systems utilised by the ambulance and hospital trusts were not directly compatible, so clinical information had to be communicated verbally and some details were missed out.
In a third case, the mental health team did not know why a patient had been taken to A&E, as her digital patient data was unavailable. They released her instead of confining her under the Mental Health Act. She claimed her life herself the next morning.
On the other hand, Labour has announced projects to store each NHS patient’s health data in one place, and for patient records to be made readily available via standardised information systems across the NHS. The strategies apply to England, with health mostly devolved in the rest of the UK.
How does Health Secertary’s £2bn plan aim to enhance patient safety?
Health secretary Wes Streeting expressed: “No patient should die in 2024 because different parts of the NHS can’t transmit information. This is why we desperately need to modernise our health service. The budget provided an additional £2bn to arm NHS staff with modern technology, including digital patient records. Through our 10-year plan, we will deliver a single patient history on the NHS app, so clinicians have the full view of the patient they are treating. I have decided that we drag our analogue health service into the digital age, which will be more useful for patients and make the health service more efficient.”