AN NHS hospital trust was forced to declare a “serious incident” following a major IT failure with the impact lasting more than a week.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) asked hospital trusts on Teesside in a Freedom of Information request to reveal details about any such incidents over the past two financial years.

While the South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said there had not been any, its counterpart over the river, the North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust reported an issue with its electronic patient record system containing details of those receiving health care treatment from the organisation.

It said following a major upgrade of the system last September, an intermittent “system error” was reported on October 14.

The LDRS asked what the impact of the fault was with the trust stating: “Additional checks and steps were required by administrative staff within their processes, while a verification and corrective exercise was carried out by the system administration teams. 

“There was no harm to patients as a result of this incident.”

The fault continued to be an issue for another seven days until the supplier of the electronic patient record system provided a “final software fix” which was successfully incorporated on October 22.

The trust in its response was unable to give a figure as to the costs which arose from the incident adding: “A full in-depth investigation was initiated, it’s aim to identify learning and make and implement actions that will reduce the risk of an incident recurring.”

The NHS defines serious incidents as an event where the “potential for learning is so great or the consequences to patients, families and carers, staff or organisations are so significant, that they warrant using additional resources to mount a comprehensive response”.

The trust, which operates hospitals in Stockton and Hartlepool and serves a population of about 400,000 people, has been contacted for comment.

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