Blood test firm blamed by GPs for ‘catalogue of disasters’

An NHS supplier that gained a £2bn contract to ship blood-testing companies for hospitals and GPs is failing to ship dependable outcomes, in accordance 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 just 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 stated 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, stated the assault had “considerably lowered our capability to course of samples”. Synnovis, which serves six hospitals in London, added that it had “devoted each out there useful resource to delivering clinically protected and largely handbook interim options”.

In keeping with greater than a dozen GPs we heard from, throughout all of south-east London’s boroughs, the severity of challenges they face beneath Synnovis is inflicting nervousness for each sufferers and medical doctors.

The GPs advised 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 advised about, an aged man who was caring for his spouse with dementia needlessly spent hours in accident and emergency (A&E) attributable to issues together with his take a look at.

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

“The present issues with Synnovis is nothing in need of 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 advised there was an issue. “I came upon there was one thing incorrect with the blood take a look at – my potassium was too excessive, which isn’t regular,” she stated.

Nonetheless, Kemi stated her GP advised her that her potassium ranges weren’t truly excessive, however that this outcome was discovered as a result of her blood pattern had coagulated because it had waited too lengthy to be processed.

When she obtained her outcomes on the NHS app – which the BBC has seen – it stated they have been “invalid attributable to laboratory error”. Kemi stated 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 analysis,” she advised us. “I’m apprehensive that I’m going to finish up significantly harm as a result of I am unable to get the analysis I want.”

GPs have advised the BBC that unreliable blood outcomes, with erroneously excessive ranges of potassium attributable to processing delays, are an everyday incidence since Synnovis started the service.

Excessive potassium ranges within the blood can level to critical well being points, comparable to coronary heart issues.

Due to this, GPs say they can’t 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 identify – says he experiences on a weekly foundation.

“If the potassium degree is above six it may trigger issues with the center and coronary heart rhythm disturbances that would doubtlessly show to be deadly,” Dr Shah stated. “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 almost three many years, stated the frequency of elevated potassium in blood outcomes had been unusually excessive at his surgical procedure lately.

“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 stated.

Dr Shah advised the BBC he just lately needed to ship a person in his 80s to hospital as his potassium degree appeared elevated on a Synnovis blood take a look at. He defined that the affected person had come to the surgical procedure together with his spouse who had dementia and his daughter, and the household have been involved about lengthy ready instances at A&E that night.

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

Dr Shah added: “I am most likely sending a few sufferers to A&E every 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 virtually 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 footwear; you will have a pathology service, you count on accuracy and reliability. That is not occurring.”

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

A spread 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 advised 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 go away the occupation”.

A number of GPs advised of latest cases the place they have been unable to do well timed diabetes exams for sufferers due to Synnovis delays.

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

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

“That is occurring each day, on a clinic-by-clinic foundation,” she added.

Acknowledging the impression the issues have had on the morale and workload of GPs, Dr Drage stated: “We don’t imagine we are able to 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 stated the written response it obtained 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 example relating to exams for malaria and diabetes.

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

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

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

Southeast London Built-in Care Board stated in an announcement that exams 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 to outcomes reporting”.

It stated 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 considered 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 methods from the bottom up.”

In keeping with an announcement 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 stated: “The ultimate phases of restoration following the cyber assault on pathology companies supplier Synnovis in June are virtually full, which suggests almost all companies are actually up and operating.”

In its assertion, Synnovis stated it provided greater than 6,000 several types of take a look at, serving virtually 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, faulty Synnovis exams account for considerably lower than 0.001% of the 150,000 exams we course of per day.”

Nonetheless, these figures seem to incorporate all Synnovis testing, together with urine exams.

Synnovis added in its assertion: “The supply of Synnovis’s pathology companies for GPs is enabled by a spread of test-request and outcomes methods and software program, a good portion of which predates the Synnovis contract and are offered 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 latest experiences have made her lose confidence within the well being service.

She stated: “I really feel like as a youngster, not with 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 exhausting to know the place I can go from right here.

“It’d look like it is only a blood take a look at nevertheless it’s critical. It may be a matter of life and demise.”