Yet another failure by Capita/PCSE was made known to GPC this week. In response, GPC have again demanded that Capita be stripped of its contract to supply GP support services after the company admitted further administration errors. In this latest event, correspondence sent to three email inboxes were left unprocessed for around two years. While Capita has not confirmed the total number of emails which went unprocessed, the BMA understands that it is in the region of thousands.
At least 16 women failed to receive invitations to attend cervical screening appointments and requests from another 99 women to be removed from the screening programme were also not followed through.
"Less than a year after tens of thousands of women missed vital correspondence about cervical screening, this is a further example of patient safety being put at risk because of Capita's incompetence. While the numbers here are much smaller, this is a testament to the hard work and diligence of GPs and their teams, picking up the pieces where Capita has failed.
However if just one patient comes to harm as a result of this blunder - then it is one patient too many. We understand that all women affected have now been informed, but to hear that they may be up to two years overdue for an appointment will no doubt cause a great deal of distress and anxiety.
"Four month ago, following repeated pressure by GPC England, NHS England finally stripped Capita of the cervical screening contract. However, it is still responsible for a number of backroom GP functions, delivering Primary Care Support England (PCSE) services. This most recent revelation provides further evidence that it is unfit to hold this PCSE contract, and as we have stressed consistently, NHS England must take it back in-house immediately. Indeed, alongside cervical screening information, we are now aware that there was other correspondence left unprocessed by Capita, including some regarding GP pensions, and we will be demanding more information and urgent action from NHS England on these."
