back to article Watchdog slaps NHS for failure to tackle correspondence backlog

The National Audit Office has slapped the NHS Shared Business Services for its failure to handle a backlog of misdirected clinical correspondence, which will cost £6.6m to work through. The NHS Shared Business Services is a joint venture between the Department of Health and Sopra Steria set up in 2004 to provide support …

  1. Halfmad

    ICO should step in.

    Any patients asking for copies of their own records wouldn't have been able to be given complete sets due to this missing data sitting at the SBS but nobody would have known that other than the SBS.

    They have fundamentally failed to care for the data in their possession whilst data controllers.

  2. Hollerithevo

    The joy or privatisation

    Id May goes ahead, we can expect a lot more of this sort of thing, as we know the marketplace it tip-top in delivering efficiency, transparency and ethics.

    Ha ha ha ha ha --- ah, I needed a good laugh.

  3. Cuddles

    No it doesn't

    "Watchdog slaps NHS"

    No, as the article clearly states the watchdog has criticised "NHS Shared Business Services", which is not the NHS at all but rather an entirely separate company set up by the DoH and Sopra Steria. The NHS has no involvement at all other than as a customer, and even that is as individual trusts and not the NHS as a whole.

    1. Raedwald Bretwalda

      Re: No it doesn't

      Yes, a more accurate title would be "Privatised service fails to deliver to NHS". That puts the issue in a very different frame.

    2. MT Field

      Re: No it doesn't

      But the NHS is responsible for checking the QM systems of SBS are adequate and audited. So both have failed in their responsibilities.

  4. David Lewis 2

    Capitalism at its finest!

    We've delivered a crap service which has lead to a backlog of 435,000 items, but for (another) crap-ton of money we'll fix it for you!

    The standard outsource business model:

    1. Deliver a system that doesn't work.

    2. Get paid for fixing what you screwed up in the first place.

    3. PROFIT!

    That sound you can hear is them laughing all the way to the bank.

  5. nematoad

    Bah!

    "...is still discussing with NHS SBS how these costs will be split -"

    They should be jointly and severably liable. SBS and Sopra Steria cocked this up. Just send them the bill and leave it to them to sort out who pays what.

    Why waste money on trying to apportion blame? Let them do that at their own expense.

    1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

      Re: Bah!

      "They should be jointly and severably liable. SBS and Sopra Steria cocked this up. Just send them the bill and leave it to them to sort out who pays what."

      From TFA The NHS Shared Business Services is a joint venture between the Department of Health and Sopra Steria set up in 2004 to provide support services to the NHS.

      It's not SBS & Spora Steria, it's DoH & Sopra Steria so any costs involved in working out how to split the costs will be at public expense, as will the cost of fixing it.

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon

Other stories you might like