A hospital trust failed to send out thousands of letters to patients after they were lost in a new computer system, it has been reported.

Newcastle Hospital has warned that the problem, which concerns around 24,000 unsent letters, is significant, and has sought urgent assurances over patient safety.

Most of the lost letters -dating back to 2018 – explain what should happen when patients are discharged from the hospital, according to the BBC.

Others are from specialist clinics spelling out care that is needed for patients.

Staff have now been told to record any resulting incidents of patient harm and ensure these are addressed.

Following a routine inspection by the regulator – the Care Quality Commission (CQC) – in the summer, staff at the trust raised concerns about delays in sending out correspondence.

A subsequent review of the trust’s consultants revealed that most had unsent letters in their e-record account.

In a letter sent to staff about the problem, and seen by the BBC, the trust explains that letters drafted by one member of staff have to be signed off by a second clinician before they can be sent.

If that doesn’t happen, letters end up in a consultant’s document folder and remain unsent until they are signed off correctly.

Sarah Dronsfield, the CQC’s interim director of operations in the North, said: ‘We took immediate action to request further detail from the trust to understand the extent to which people may be at risk, and evidence of the steps being taken to review the impact on patients, ensure people are safe and mitigate any risk of avoidable delays in treatment going forward.’

The trust says it will immediately deal with a 6,000-letter backlog from the last year alone.

More than 1,200 of these relate to medicine and emergency care. Some letters may be duplicates, or created in error.

Dr George Rae, a GP and chairman of the North East BMA Council said there would be ‘an incredible amount of information’ within the letters.

‘If you didn’t get the letters, you wouldn’t have the results of scans and X-rays or blood tests.’

He said GPs would be ‘absolutely unaware’ of a change in medication or treatment if a patient had gone to hospital and received a significant diagnosis.

Martin Wilson, Newcastle Hospitals’ chief operating officer, said he wanted to reassure patients that ‘we are taking immediate steps to address the issue’.

He added: ‘We sincerely apologise for any anxiety or inconvenience this may cause.’

It is currently reviewing 24,000 documents from its electronic records, which accounts for less than 0.3% of all contact with patients, the trust says.

The CQC said it was monitoring the trust closely and could inspect it at any time if it had concerns.

It said: ‘We will report on the full findings from our latest inspection and any areas where the trust has been required to make improvements as soon as we are able to.

‘If anyone has any concerns about the care they have received they can let us know directly.’

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