350,000 errors found in child immunisation IT system switchover

Hundreds of thousands of errors have been discovered in a northern trust’s child immunisation IT system, meaning that vaccinations could have been recorded incorrectly.

Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust have been transferring information from Community Child Health 2000 (CCH2000) to Civica’s Paris system.

During the process 350,000 errors were discovered in CCH2000, a trust spokeswoman confirmed.

In a joint statement from the trust and the Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership, it said, “it is too soon to confirm exactly what the data issues are, but they could range from names and addresses being incorrect or potentially vaccinations being recorded incorrectly”.

The statement, released 19 May, also said “urgent work is being undertaken to cleanse the data as much as possible”, and sought to reassure parents.

“There is no reason to suggest there have been any problems with how vaccines have been administered or a risk of harm to patients.  The problem relates to how they have been recorded on an electronic system and subsequently scheduled.”

A trust spokeswoman confirmed to Digital Health News that there are data fixes that could be done, but the trust has got to interrogate the data first.

CCH2000 was developed originally by NHS Wales Informatics Service, and was used to record information about child immunisations in Bury, Oldham, Rochdale and Trafford.

In a statement provided to Digital Health News, NHS Wales Informatics Service said that it had “developed the original software for CCH2000, however, management and support of the system has always been undertaken by CSC including data migration”.

Pennine Care’s March board papers stated that an extension to CCH2000 had been secured by the trust, but that from 31 March the system is no longer supported by NHS Wales.

The papers also noted that the address checking software license runs out 1 April, but it is being extended “at no cost to the trust by NHS Digital”.

In the trust’s April board papers, it says that Civica has isolated the “erroneous data records” so that the trust can go live with Paris, “and then deal with the data errors without causing massive rescheduling and immunisations”.

The papers added that Civica’s go-live date is 26 June.

A Civica spokeswoman said the supplier is “working closely with the Pennine Care Trust throughout the implementation of the Paris system to ensure that clinicians and health care workers have access to accurate child health records”.

NHS England said it was not currently aware of this issue happening elsewhere in the country.

“Clinical commissioning groups and trusts are responsible for procurement of their technology. If problems such as these come to light we expect the local NHS to ensure they take swift action to investigate and rectify any issues identified”, the spokesperson said.

The trust’s statement said if any errors relating to vaccination scheduling were found, parents would be informed at the first opportunity.

Digital Health Intelligence says Paris is also used as the trust’s electronic patient record, patient administration system, discharge letters and clinical noting.

Last decade there were large problems with London’s child health software, with the Health Protection Agency strongly criticising the system after a fall in immunisation rates of up to 19% by primary care trusts using the system.

Pennine Care provides mental health and community care services, and employs 5,500 staff who provide care to 1.3 million people.

CSC did not reply to request for comment before publication deadline.