Handwritten paperwork “causes delays”

GPs spend too long filling in paperwork by hand, decreasing the amount of time they spend with patients, a survey by software developers Codegate and Zebra Technologies has found.

Fifty practice managers were contacted at events across the UK and half of them said handwritten forms caused delays in test diagnosis. Two fifths also said that time wasted in appointments was a major impact from GPs spending time filling in paperwork by hand.

Graham Fenton, healthcare director at Codegate, said: “The paperwork accompanying test results provides the critical link between the GP surgery and the laboratory. Delays are caused by problems in reading doctors’ handwriting.

“In many cases test results are sent back to the surgery pending legible paperwork and duplicate records are created leading to inaccurate and incomplete test diagnosis.”

The survey also found that a third of respondents felt that more than one in ten test results are delayed due to paperwork problems. All of the respondents felt that automated desktop labelling would improve the situation.

Aileen McHugh, healthcare manager at Zebra, said: “Waiting for GP appointments and test results have long been a patient bugbear. Now is the time for GP surgeries to take advantage of basic IT innovation. Implementing changes as simple as a small desktop printer and intuitive software can radically improve the patient experience from reducing appointment times to speeding up test results.”

Fenton added: “Printed labels and forms are common practice in Scotland and across Northern Ireland, yet the majority of English GP surgeries are yet to benefit with GPs forced to waste precious time completing every single form and label by hand.”