Blood check agency blamed by GPs for ‘catalogue of disasters’

An NHS supplier that received a £2bn contract to ship blood-testing companies for hospitals and GPs is failing to ship dependable outcomes, in line with medical professionals.

Synnovis, a public-private partnership between the medical firm Synlab and Man’s and St Thomas’ and King’s School hospital basis trusts, secured the contract in 2021 to ship pathology companies for slightly below 200 GP surgical procedures throughout south-east London.

The BBC has spoken to GPs who say incorrect and delayed blood outcomes are a “common concern” and that the agency’s efficiency is inflicting nice misery to sufferers.

Synnovis mentioned it was “extremely sorry for the inconvenience and upset prompted to these affected”.

The corporate, which fell sufferer to a ransomware cyberattack in June 2024 that prompted greater than 1,000 NHS operations to be postponed, mentioned the assault had “considerably lowered our capability to course of samples”. Synnovis, which serves six hospitals in London, added that it had “devoted each accessible useful resource to delivering clinically secure and largely handbook interim options”.

Based on greater than a dozen GPs we heard from, throughout all of south-east London’s boroughs, the severity of challenges they face below Synnovis is inflicting anxiousness for each sufferers and medical doctors.

The GPs informed the BBC that the blood-test points have been resulting in pointless hospital referrals and wasted affected person appointments. In a single case the BBC was informed about, an aged man who was caring for his spouse with dementia needlessly spent hours in accident and emergency (A&E) resulting from issues along with his check.

One GP, who spoke to the BBC anonymously, mentioned: “It could [previously] by no means cross our minds {that a} blood check may not be dependable. That is now an on a regular basis concern.

“The present issues with Synnovis is nothing wanting a nationwide scandal,” they added.

Kemi, a 17-year-old faculty scholar, began to expertise coronary heart palpitations, breathlessness and fatigue six months in the past.

Unable to attend faculty due to her well being points, in November she sought an appointment at her GP surgical procedure, which depends on Synnovis for blood testing.

When the outcomes got here again, she was informed there was an issue. “I came upon there was one thing fallacious with the blood check – my potassium was too excessive, which isn’t regular,” she mentioned.

Nevertheless, Kemi mentioned her GP informed her that her potassium ranges weren’t really excessive, however that this consequence was discovered as a result of her blood pattern had coagulated because it had waited too lengthy to be processed.

When she acquired her outcomes on the NHS app – which the BBC has seen – it mentioned they have been “invalid resulting from laboratory error”. Kemi mentioned the scenario had left her “annoyed, unhappy and confused”.

“I am actually caught. I am depressed, I am anxious that one thing’s going to occur to me earlier than I get a prognosis,” she informed us. “I’m anxious that I’m going to finish up significantly damage as a result of I am unable to get the prognosis I would like.”

GPs have informed the BBC that unreliable blood outcomes, with erroneously excessive ranges of potassium brought on by processing delays, are a daily incidence since Synnovis started the service.

Excessive potassium ranges within the blood can level to severe well being points, reminiscent of coronary heart issues.

Due to this, GPs say they can not ignore blood-test outcomes that point out excessive potassium – even when they imagine them to be incorrect – and they’re obliged to refer sufferers instantly to A&E.

GPs say these sufferers are sometimes turned away after being retested at hospital, the place regular potassium ranges are found.

It is a matter Dr Shah – not his actual title – says he experiences on a weekly foundation.

“If the potassium stage is above six it may possibly trigger issues with the center and coronary heart rhythm disturbances that would doubtlessly show to be deadly,” Dr Shah mentioned. “It is an pressing factor that should have the pattern repeated and to verify the result’s real or a false studying.”

Dr Shah, who has been a GP for practically three a long time, mentioned the frequency of elevated potassium in blood outcomes had been unusually excessive at his surgical procedure in recent times.

“It turned out that there have been delays within the assortment of samples from the GP surgical procedures, then to the labs… delays in processing within the labs, which was inflicting the outcomes to be excessive,” he mentioned.

Dr Shah informed the BBC he not too long ago needed to ship a person in his 80s to hospital as his potassium stage appeared elevated on a Synnovis blood check. He defined that the affected person had come to the surgical procedure along with his spouse who had dementia and his daughter, and the household have been involved about lengthy ready occasions at A&E that night.

“I needed to say to them they should not depart it till the subsequent day as a result of while I assumed it was regular, I could not reassure them,” Dr Shah defined. At hospital, the affected person’s potassium stage was ultimately discovered to be regular and he was discharged.

Dr Shah added: “I am most likely sending a few sufferers to A&E per week due to outcomes I believe to be defective. Since Synnovis took over pathology companies for south-east London, it is just about been a listing of disasters.

“We’re nearly second-guessing the pathology system and it is one thing that by no means used to occur.

“You go to a shoe store, you count on to purchase a pair of sneakers; you will have a pathology service, you count on accuracy and reliability. That is not taking place.”

Dr Shah’s account just isn’t a lone one.

A variety of claims has been made by the 14 GPs we have now heard from – who all needed to stay nameless for skilled causes.

One GP informed the BBC that the elevated workload ensuing from having to evaluate after which escalate unreliable outcomes was resulting in “elevated burnout and other people wanting to depart the occupation”.

A number of GPs informed of current situations the place they have been unable to do well timed diabetes assessments for sufferers due to Synnovis delays.

Londonwide LMCs (native medical committees), the physique that represents and helps GPs throughout the capital, mentioned the issues with blood-test delays and inaccuracies skilled by GPs in south-east London weren’t in step with the pathology service throughout different components of the town.

“We’ve got by no means had so many emails and questions, other than the start of Covid, about one explicit factor, from one space in London, mentioned Michelle Drage, CEO of Londonwide LMCs.

“That is taking place every day, on a clinic-by-clinic foundation,” she added.

Acknowledging the influence the issues have had on the morale and workload of GPs, Dr Drage mentioned: “We don’t imagine we will depend on Synnovis for accuracy. Our GPs have misplaced religion and belief in that service – that is a horrible scenario to be in.”

In October, Londonwide LMCs escalated its issues to the Southeast London Built-in Care Board – the physique charged with holding to account the NHS hospital trusts partnered with Synnovis.

Dr Drage mentioned the written response it acquired was “unsatisfactory”.

In addition to listening to the testimony of medical doctors, the BBC has seen dozens of Synnovis emails, despatched to GPs from 2021 to the current day, apologising and making an attempt to account for numerous pathology issues, as an illustration relating to assessments for malaria and diabetes.

One electronic mail confirmed Synnovis apologising for a backlog of 70,000 check leads to spring 2024 – earlier than the cyber-attack.

Dr Jayne – not her actual title – defined that it took Synnovis a month to find the backlog and start to handle it. “It is actually tough to quantify that drawback… 70,000 worries,” the GP of practically 20 years informed the BBC.

“It is actually tense. We attempt to defend our sufferers. I really feel like I am continuously apologising for the system. It is not my fault. We actually wish to be getting on with our work correctly and never managing Synnovis’s errors.”

Southeast London Built-in Care Board mentioned in a press release that assessments requested by south-east London GPs alone amounted to about 10,000 a day, “with a variety of logistical steps concerned, from blood taking by means of to outcomes reporting”.

It mentioned there had been “a variety of incidents” since Synnovis took on pathology companies for south-east London that had been pushed by a “variety of components, together with incidents which have impacted on the Synnovis service however which have been outdoors of their management”.

The assertion continued: “Additionally, you will remember that certainly one of these incidents was a legal cyberattack, the response to which was a rare effort from a number of companions, together with Synnovis, to keep up a viable service for our GP colleagues, whereas Synnovis undertook the numerous activity of rebuilding their programs from the bottom up.”

Based on a press release launched by NHS England in October, 10,152 acute outpatient appointments and 1,710 elective procedures have been postponed on account of the cyberattack.

The assertion mentioned: “The ultimate levels of restoration following the cyber assault on pathology companies supplier Synnovis in June are nearly full, which implies practically all companies at the moment are up and working.”

In its assertion, Synnovis mentioned it provided greater than 6,000 several types of check, serving nearly two million sufferers, six hospitals and 191 GP practices throughout 249 websites.

“Whereas we perceive that any error in any respect could cause affected person and practitioner misery, misguided Synnovis assessments account for considerably lower than 0.001% of the 150,000 assessments we course of per day.”

Nevertheless, these figures seem to incorporate all Synnovis testing, together with urine assessments.

Synnovis added in its assertion: “The supply of Synnovis’s pathology companies for GPs is enabled by means of a spread of test-request and outcomes programs and software program, a good portion of which predates the Synnovis contract and are supplied by legacy third-party suppliers.

“We’re very conscious that this has been a particularly difficult and generally distressing interval for sufferers and front-line NHS colleagues and are extremely sorry for the inconvenience and upset prompted to these affected.”

For school scholar Kemi, her current experiences have made her lose confidence within the well being service.

She mentioned: “I really feel like as a teenager, not having the ability to have entry to dependable outcomes units the precedent that I am unable to have an unbiased well being journey as a 17-year-old. It is arduous to know the place I can go from right here.

“It’d seem to be it is only a blood check nevertheless it’s severe. It may be a matter of life and dying.”