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Lewisham Care Partnership - Patients have no say.

Story from nhs.uk

"Lewisham Care Partnership - Patients have no say."

About: St Johns Medical Centre

The Lewisham Care Partnership appears to have no mechanism by which patients have a say in how local health services and their quality is delivered to patients it has a duty to serve. A new telephone triaging system recently introduced takes at minimum 1.5 minutes to listen to the instructions on how to navigate it, not best practice for Interactive Voice Response system. On joining the call back queue placed 13th in the queue at 12.30pm. Still waiting at at 15.00. On making the second call, advised position now 4th in the queue so hung up and waited, no call came, rang back 30 minutes to find the new queue position being 27th. Pathology Services, i.e. non urgent blood test, patient’s self-booking appointment facility has been suspended since the 05 June 2024 as result of a cyber attack. Blood tests are an essential part of the GP's disease diagnosis process and it has all but been stopped across Lewisham. This means all patients under Lewisham's care who require self-booked pathology appointments are not able to request them, and have no access to the mutual aid pathology facilities that should be in place in the event of a disruption to service. It has now been 1.5 months since Lewisham Care Partnership patients have no access pathology services to support disease diagnosis. There has been no communication as to when this essential pathology service will be restored for patient access. Today, a new urgent notice has been issued by the Lewisham Care Partnership that GP's and Pharmacies are unable to access their systems because of an IT issue resulting in GP's and Pharmacies unable to provide patients with their prescribed medication. Is anyone in the Lewisham Care Partnership monitoring this catastrophic collapse in your ability to meet your obligations and provide the care people need, when they need it?

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Responses

Response from St Johns Medical Centre 3 months ago
St Johns Medical Centre

Submitted on 07/01/2025 at 14:07
Published on nhs.uk at 14:07

Dear Ian,

Thank you for taking the time to share your concerns in such detail. I am sorry to hear about the issues you have been experiencing with our services, and I completely understand the frustration and distress this situation caused you.

I want to sincerely apologise for the difficulties you have encountered with the new telephone triaging system, the prolonged wait times, and the challenges with accessing pathology services and medications. We fully appreciate how essential blood tests are to the diagnostic process, and we are acutely aware of the impact that the suspension of self-booking appointments and disruptions to IT services are having on patient care.

The ransomware cyber-attack on Synnovis, the pathology lab responsible for processing blood tests, caused significant disruption. We made every effort to keep our patients informed by providing updates both in person and on our website as we received information from Synnovis. I also understand your concerns about the impact these service failures have on your ability to access essential care and prescriptions, and I sincerely apologise for the delays and inconvenience caused.

Please know that we are actively working to improve the systems that support our patient care, including the telephone triage and appointment booking systems. Your feedback about the IVR system will be passed on to the relevant teams to ensure that we make these processes as efficient and user-friendly as possible.

I appreciate your patience during this difficult time, and I would like to assure you that your concerns are being heard. If you would like to discuss your concerns further, please do not hesitate to contact us directly. We are committed to addressing your needs and ensuring that you receive the care and support you deserve.

Thank you for bringing these matters to our attention.

Kind regards,

Complaints Hub

The Lewisham Care Partnership

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