Guy’s and St Thomas’ still feeling the heat with ongoing IT issues

Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust (GSTT) now have their core IT systems back up and running but work continues to recover a ‘large number’ of clinical applications following the extreme heatwave related disruption. 

Digital Health News reported that the trust was suffering disruption on 22 July, the week the UK experienced record high temperatures. It came after the Guardian reported that GSTT had been forced to cancel operations, postpone appointments and divert seriously ill patients to other hospitals in London because of the IT problems.

On 27 July the news was that GSTT were still experiencing issues but some progress had been made with a small number of IT systems back online.

Several weeks later, the trust’s core IT systems are now online but the issues are ongoing, with particular difficulties in recovering smaller applications.

A spokesperson from Guy’s and St Thomas’s NHS Foundation Trust said: “Our core IT systems are now up and running, with further systems coming online every day. Work continues to recover and reconcile a large number of smaller applications and this is being done based on clinical priority.

“The complexity of our current IT systems has made them difficult to recover and this process is ongoing. Whilst we have continued to deliver most of our services, regrettably we have had to postpone some operations and appointments.

“We are extremely sorry for any disruption and apologise unreservedly. We are contacting these patients directly to rearrange their care at the earliest opportunity. We thank our staff for their dedication and resilience at this very difficult time.”

The trust’s last public update on the situation was made on their website on 5 August, where they apologised for the ongoing issues and assured patients that they are now working hard to rearrange postponed appointments and procedures.