6 Jul 2015

Delays for thousands of patient records

9:46 pm on 6 July 2015

Thousands of South Island hospital patient records were not sent to GPs for nearly six weeks because of an IT fault.

Six thousand discharge summaries for some patients in Canterbury and West Coast hospitals should have gone to the patients' GPs between 18 May and 26 June.

It was discovered on Friday that they had not been sent; now, they have been.

Canterbury DHB chief medical officer Nigel Millar said the system failure was being taken very seriously and the board was sorry for any problems caused.

He said the cause of the fault was being investigated.

A discharge summary usually includes notes on symptoms, treatment, medication and any follow-up required.