Primary Care Bulletin - November 2025

Dear Primary care colleagues,

Thank you for all the feedback you have been providing to us through the ICB and STH contact points, since we implemented our new electronic patient record system (EPR). We knew from listening to other Trusts who had new EPRs that there would be some initial teething issues, and we do appreciate your forbearance whilst we address these as quickly as possible. We have made good progress to date and the update below we hope will be helpful. Please be assured that we do not underestimate the importance of getting this right as quickly as possible to limit the impact on patient care and your teams. You should see further improvements over the coming weeks as work continues.

Discharge letters and other clinical correspondence.

Thank you for the detailed feedback we have received relating to the timeliness and completeness of discharge letters. This has informed a full review of the discharge process we are asking staff to follow and enabled us to identify where we need to do more work to help staff adopt the new process more easily. The issues which have been raised and are that we are addressing include:

• Missing discharge date on some letters
• Wrong specialty listed in different parts of some letters
• Some medication changes not being fully described or issued in a timely way.
• Time it is taking for some correspondence to reach GPs.
• Duplicate letters.
• Longer format of discharge letters.

In terms of the timeliness of correspondence, the issue is that if all the fields on the EPR for the discharge process or other clinical correspondence are not completed by all the relevant staff involved in the patient’s care then this can result in the letter being held in draft in the system which has contributed to delays in the letters getting to you. We have put in a process and team to monitor and review any letters which are held in the system for different reasons, any missing information is being added and then the letters are being sent out. The consequence of this is that some practices may be receiving batches of letters which we know is not ideal, but we would ask you to bear with us while work is underway to address the issues permanently.

The new EPR also requires staff to press a “save and submit” button rather than just “save.” If the save and submit button is not used, then the letter is held in draft as the system assumes there is something else to be added and not complete. We have made this clear to colleagues and will continue to reiterate the importance of pressing the Save and Submit button.

 A User adoption group has been established to prioritise how we can further support staff to adopt the correct discharge and clinical correspondence processes. This includes visits to wards and departments to give face to face support and training, clearer instructions on the tasks each staff group need to complete in the discharge process and a review of the process to see if it can be simplified within Connect.

Regarding the instances of duplicate letters, our admin team have created duplicates because the NHS Spine update was not end dating addresses correctly. We have changed the process to stop this from happening. We have noted that in some cases the clinician has sent the letter, and the secretary is also sending the letter. We will address this in the forthcoming staff masterclass and through other user adoption activities. In terms of the longer format of discharge letters, this relates to font type and layout in most cases but following some changes we have had some positive feedback on ED letters recently that this is now improving. We will continue to work on this moving forward.

Outpatient clinics

Over 85% of our outpatient clinics are now booking as normal following remedial work required following the transition to the EPR. The remaining clinics are being worked on over the next few weeks and we have ensured our teams have the timelines to be able to update patients on when they can expect to receive appointments (in line with pre EPR waiting times for different specialties). We are also addressing the issues raised where patients have reported that they have not had appointment letters. The admin team are checking where possible and contacting patients by telephone.

Clinical concerns reporting process

We are very grateful to the ICB for overseeing the tracker which has collated primary care feedback each week. It has been incredibly helpful, thank you, but we have now reached a point where the same issues are being reported each week and to avoid unnecessary work for primary care this is no longer necessary. We hope that the information above is reassuring in terms of the progress being made to rectify the issues raised.

In terms of queries which relate to specific patients and potential safety implications we are asking primary care colleagues to continue completing the attached form and email it to sth.patientsafetyteam@nhs.net . This will provide the specific details for us to properly review and respond to these clinical concerns as well as make any necessary changes to our processes. The outcome of these queries will be fed back to the person raising the concern and communicated more widely if appropriate.  

We hope this update has been helpful and thank you again for your patience and support whilst we embed the new system.

Dr Nick Lyons                                                                                         
Chief Medical Officer (Development)

Jane McNicholas
Chief Medical Officer (Operations)                                            

The public is being warned that these calls are not genuine and told that the NHS will never contact patients by phone to demand updates to their records, threaten removal from a GP list, or request personal or financial information.

Patients have been advised to end the call and ring the practice directly if they are unsure whether a call is genuine.

And they have been asked to report suspected fraud to the NHS Counter Fraud Authority at https://cfa.nhs.uk/report-fraud.

Academic researchers, digital experts, and healthcare professionals working in cancer services are invited to join the half-day focus on how AI-driven technology can help transform clinical delivery, administration processes and patient outcomes, ultimately saving more lives.

Jointly presented by the South Yorkshire Innovation Hub and the SYB Cancer Alliance, the event brings in key practitioners to share knowledge and best practice in cancer research and advances in technology, exploring what the challenges are and what the solutions might be by working together.

The event, kindly sponsored by Open Medical, takes place on Thursday 29 January 2026 at the University of Sheffield’s Wave Building in Broomhill from 12.30pm to 4.30pm.

The event is capped at 80, so please register for your free place now using this link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/south-yorkshire-icb-research-innovation-forum-cancer-tickets-1863460483469?aff=oddtdtcreator

A full agenda and further details will be sent to delegates in due course.

Takeaways from the sessions will include:

• Who the Teams are and how to contact them
• Referral criteria/ Who and how!
• What they don't offer and why
• Signposting for additional help and advice
• Current wait times
• Support available for those on our waiting lists and for you
• Resources referred to in the session for you to share with your colleagues and Teams

You will also have the opportunity to ask those questions that can help us all to work more collaboratively through a shared understanding of roles and services provided across primary and secondary care.

The lunchtime sessions are designed for GP colleagues but please feel free to extend the invitation to anyone else in your Teams who might benefit from coming together with RDaSH services , for example Care Navigators, clinical staff, PCN staff, Social Prescribers, etc.                

Please share across your GP, Clinical and Admin Teams as you feel appropriate.

Our last session was rated 5 out of 5 and ALL of those who fed back to us felt that it was a good use of their time.  Why not come and see what Lunch Collab is all about?

You can book a place on any of our future Lunch Collab sessions at the links below:

We hope to see some of you there!

What is it about?

The event will showcase data and tools to support improvements for care processes and treatment targets. Attendees will hear from a range of speakers, providing peer-led practical demonstrations and best-practice applications.

During the event you will be shown how to access your data; how to analyse your data; and how use your data to facilitate improvement.

Who should attend?

Healthcare professionals interested in diabetes, who wish to update their knowledge and skills and seek improvement in patient outcomes for people living with diabetes.

Clinicians, commissioners and managers who would like to understand the quality of their local diabetes care to help them plan and improve their local services.

YOU WILL RECEIVE A CERTIFICATE OF ATTENDANCE FOR JOINING THIS WEBINAR

Follow the link to register today: Know Your System Registration.