The Choose and Book system has been hit by a technical problem which has resulted in over 300 patients receiving wrong appointment information in the post.
First noticed last Friday, the problem is still unsolved and is the reason behind Connecting for Health postponing the release of version 4 of the system, which will enable patients to choose any hospital in England for their treatment.
The cause of the problem is still being investigated, and strategic health authorities are being informed when a patient being sent the wrong information is noticed.
A CfH spokesperson said: “A system error led to the wrong generation of appointments for some patient bookings. This is still being investigated and we will give full details when it has been determined. It is difficult to confirm at this stage the exact number of patients affected.
“However early indications to date suggest that up to couple of hundred patients have been affected. Some patients may have received erroneous information in relation to an appointment for which they have not been referred, which will clearly be confusing for them while some patients may turn up to the clinic for an appointment when they are not expected.”
The spokesperson added that CfH staff are contacting SHA’s when discrepancies are noticed to ensure that patients receive their correct appointment. No patients have turned up to hospitals unnecessarily so far.
It is due to this error, that Choose and Book has been unable to go-live with v4, introducing Free Choice.
The spokesperson said: “The programme continues to run on the current 3.6 release while NHS CFH works closely with Choose and Book’s principal supplier and their sub – contractors to resolve the issue affecting a relatively small number of patient bookings.
“In keeping with the introduction of Free Choice, patients will be able to choose which hospital they wish to be referred to. GPs will be able to refer the patient to their chosen provider using Choose and Book or by making a manual referral.”
Fewer referrals are currently being made on the system, and CfH say the number of wrong appointments has significantly reduced since Friday.
The spokesperson said: “The majority of wrong appointments were noticed on Friday 11 and there are fewer now being noticed by Choose and Book monitors. At this stage, there is still no actual technical reason for the error. From the evidence we have available to us today we believe that patient confidentiality has not been breached. We are monitoring this extremely closely.”
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