Trust reviewing harm to 175 patients after referrals breakdown

The gastroenterology and colorectal patients were referred into Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals Foundation Trust, but not put onto the trust’s referral tracker for clinical teams to triage, HSJ understands.

Some of the gastroenterology patients had been referred as far back as March, and some colorectal cases in April.

Around 175 patients whose GPs marked their referrals as urgent are now being reviewed for clinical harm, although none of them were on a two-week suspected cancer pathway.

Once the error was discovered, the patients were added to the referral tracker by 9 July. Until that point, they were not being reported on any trust performance or waiting time system and were not visible to either operational management or clinical teams.

A report to the trust board last month said: “Triaging is now being completed by the clinical teams via electronic referral service and this will ensure waiting patients are visible.

“At this stage it is not possible to determine harm until all urgent patients have been reviewed. Outcomes for urgent patient referrals will be tracked. Oversight of patients waiting will be provided by a daily report.

“In addition, there are capacity issues with outpatient follow up appointments for these services.”

Trust chief executive Suzanne Rankin said in a statement: “We are very sorry for any inconvenience these delays may have caused patients and we contacted all concerned and issued appointments where necessary.”

The board papers also revealed waiting time issues in two other departments, ophthalmology and vascular services.

The trust’s main commissioner — Surrey Heartlands Clinical Commissioning Group — and the Care Quality Commission were being informed, according to the board report.