Practices are being asked to provide more information about a SystmOne issue that has been causing computers to crash when clinicians try to order diagnostic tests.
In a letter to practices, Mid and South Essex ICB said all practices had been reporting IT systems crashing when printing out pathology forms but this had now extended to problems using iRefer for requesting diagnostic tests.
Initially this was being treated as a local incident but it had later become apparent other areas of the country had been reporting similar problems with SystmOne which is owned by TPP, GPs in Essex were told.
Practices in Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes and further north were also affected, the update said.
The ICB said it had escalated the issue to NHS England to get TPP to find a solution to the problem.
Practices had been given a form to report issues to update TPP on a daily basis.
In the letter ICB said they recognised this was not the first time they had asked clinicians to provide information on the issue but the more evidence that was collected of the issue, the faster TPP would have to address the issue.
Other impacted ICBs are taking the same approach.
TPP’s SystmOne is used by more than 2,700 GP practices across England.
A TPP spokesperson said: ‘We encourage all users to follow their usual helpdesk process to log any issues they experience whilst using SystmOne. This is the quickest and most efficient way of resolving any problems.
‘All reports of potential issues are thoroughly investigated by TPP to ensure that appropriate action is taken, including liaising with providers of third party systems where the root cause does not lie with TPP.’
NHS England was approached for comment.
A version of this story was first published on our sister title Pulse.
