PAC slams trio over GP correspondence backlog

Between 2011 and April 2016, SBS was contracted by NHS England to ensure misdirected clinical correspondence was sent to the correct GP in the East Midlands, North-East London and the South West. 

However, a Commons Public Accounts Committee report said a small inherited backlog had escalated and SBS executives did not become aware of the problem until March 2016. Managers did not follow the SBS escalation process of alerting the chief finance officer of the risk, which would then lead to a plan to deal with the backlog. Overall, 709,000 items were found to be mishandled.

While it criticised SBS, the committee welcomed the admission by the joint venture, which is part owned by the Department, that it made mistakes and that the service it delivered was not good enough. 

SBS said: ’We have expressed our regret for this and co-operated fully with the National Audit Office and the Public Accounts Committee in their investigations. SBS no longer provides this service.’

The committee said NHS England and the Department of Health had failed in their oversight of SBS. 

Chair Meg Hillier (pictured) said the scale of the distress to patients would never be fully known. She said: ‘It beggars belief that those tasked with tackling a rapidly expanding backlog of correspondence did not recognise its real-world significance. Even now, huge volumes of mail are still to be properly assessed and we are far from confident health officials are on top of the issues.’