February 2024 update
Hello everyone
I have a feeling that this months update should just be three words: REGISTRATION, REGISTRATION, REGISTRATION.
We have recently been notified of two incidents where a new patient has been misidentified by staff during the registration process. Both Practice Managers could tell you of the hours of time that have been involved in rectifying the errors and the investigation of what and how it happened. Then there is the impact on the patients’ healthcare and subsequent complaints to the ICB, ICO, CQC, Health Ombudsman and local MP they now have to deal with.
Can I recommend that sometime today you take a few minutes to check with the staff at your practice who are responsible for the registration of new patients. Please ensure they are confident in completion of the task and that they are clear that the identification of a new patient must be completely accurate. Where there is any doubt they should ask for further details to confirm. It should hardly need saying but adding in a middle name where one does not exist or selecting an incorrect date of birth because “it was close and everything else fits” are not correct processes to follow. Staff must be aware of the significant adverse consequences if they make an error in this task, and having spoken to a few about this I’d recommend they are given time away from the Reception desk area to complete the process, it’s that important to get it done right.
One other item this month relates to Patient Online Access. A number of Practices completed a DPIA which identified that in their view there were still some High Risk issues in the system and they referred to the ICO for a view. This is the response to that from the ICO.