Local NHS trust experiencing 'significant IT issues' with hospitals needing to 'use paper processes'

Tuesday, 24 May 2022 16:54

By Adam Clark

Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust has been experiencing disruption and instability issues in some of its digital IT clinical systems.

The issue first arose last Wednesday (18th May) and the Trust’s Digital IT team continues to investigate the issues with the relevant technology providers to resolve this.

Digital systems are affected at sites across the Northern Care Alliance - Fairfield General Hospital (Bury), Rochdale Infirmary & Royal Oldham Hospital as well as North Manchester General Hospital.

Dr Chris Brookes, Deputy CEO and Chief Medical Officer for the Northern Care Alliance NHS Trust said: “Our clinical teams are continuing to rely on our robust contingency plans for such critical incidents.

“Patient safety and maintaining essential services remains our priority. We are doing everything we can to fix the IT issues and to limit disruption to patients and our services.

"However, unfortunately some patients may experience some delays and additional waiting across some of our services such as outpatient appointments, diagnostic tests or scans. We apologise for this.

“All patient records and personal data held by the NHS and Trust remains secure and unaffected.

“Patients who have a hospital appointment whether for planned surgery or as an outpatient should continue to attend unless they are contacted directly by the Trust and told otherwise.

“Our Emergency Departments are particularly busy at the moment. For those who feel they need to attend our emergency departments, they are likely to be waiting longer than normal if they have minor ailments.

"We are asking the public to think carefully before attending. We would, as always, recommend that you contact NHS 111 or seek advice from your local pharmacy or GP.”