Incident Alert: Delay in GP Practices Receiving ELFT Clinical Correspondence from 2 December 2023 – 30 January 2024

Dear Primary Care colleagues,

We are writing to provide an update on the incident in which our ELFT clinical eCorrespondence failed to be delivered electronically to your practices because of an issue with our RiO system supplier, The Access Group. 

We have just received updated information indicating that the issue lasted longer than previously realised; from 02/12/23 to 30/01/24. When The Access Group fixed their issue on 30/01/24, the large backlog of clinical letters from this period of time were then sent through in bulk to GP Practices. 

We share your inevitable concerns about the clinical risks associated with this failure to communicate information in a timely way to inform clinical decision-making. We also apologise for the significant disruption that will have resulted from suddenly receiving a large batch of our clinical letters.

 ELFT has sent Trustwide comms internally to alert colleagues to this incident, and we are seeking assurance from our RiO system supplier, The Access Group, that mitigations are put in place to prevent this from happening again, including a mechanism to enable us to directly monitor their service provision so that we would be alerted immediately in the event of any future issue.

 Yours sincerely

Dr David Bridle
Chief Medical Officer