Teething problems affect Trust IT change

Staff previously had to navigate two separate computer systems when booking appointments, and producing patient letters.

We welcome this change as it should, once the teething issues have been sorted out, help them manage patient letters and bookings more easily.

What people told us

The main issues people told us about included

• People being sent appointments and then when they arrive at the hospital there is no appointment booked.
• Waiting for an overdue appointment and unable to find out when this will be.
• Appointments being re-arranged multiple times.
• Patients missing appointments as they didn’t get notification that they had an appointment.

What NWAFT told us

We got in touch NWAFT to ask them for an update. We wanted to know what they were doing to sort out problems with mixed up appointments and who patients could contact if they have a problem.

"Our teams have worked hard to keep the impact on patients to a minimum. However as with any project of this size there have been some teething problems with clinic appointments and letters," explained David Pratt, Director of Finance, and executive sponsor of the project.

"The PAS project team is working closely with the Outpatients Department to ensure that clinic appointments are correct and patients are rebooked where appointments have been cancelled.

"We are also aware that a small number of patients have experienced issues with appointment letters due to some technical issues that occurred in the first week of implementation.

"For the most part, patients’ addresses are now correct on the system, but we are checking the information on the system against demographic data held nationally to ensure we capture any incorrect address and update them. Our reception staff are also double checking patient details as the point of contact.