NHS staff dealing with slow IT system going off sick with stress

The Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs Pinderfields, Pontefract and Dewsbury Hospitals said it had a “serious issue” with its computer infrastructure.

The problem relates to two IT systems that were introduced relatively recently and are used by NHS organisations across the UK.

A root cause is not yet known, but the issue is slowing down day-to-day work and has resulted in some staff becoming ill.

Speaking at trust board meeting, Mid Yorkshire’s director of finance, Jane Hazelgrave, said: “In the payroll team it’s soul destroying at the moment.

“You know that you can get up, make a cup of tea or coffee, come back and the issue will still be there. Nothing will have changed. We’ve got sickness within the team at the moment – it’s actually making them ill.”

It is believed hospitals’ broadband connections have been ruled out as a potential cause, though the meeting was told that staff were logging on at home without any problems.

Adrian O’Malley, from trade union UNISON which represents a high number of NHS workers, said he believed the issues were widespread across the country.

He said: “I know there has been problems migrating from one system to another, and it’s caused chaos. It’s caused a lot of stress in the IT department as well as other departments.

People have been going for two to three days without their emails and it’s frustrating. It’s a problem across the NHS at the moment.”

Mark Braden, Mid Yorkshire’s director of estates, facilities and IT, added: “We are experiencing some speed performance issues with two of our cloud based systems.”