Blood test firm blamed by GPs for ‘catalogue of disasters’

The NHS provider, who won 2 billion pounds to provide blood test services to hospitals and doctors, fails to achieve reliable results, according to medical professionals.

Synnovis, a partnership between the public and private sectors between Synlab, Guy’s, ST Thomas and King’s College Hospital, secured the contract in 2021 to provide pathology services with less than 200 surgeries in southeast London.

The British Broadcasting Corporation has spoken to GPS, who say incorrect and late blood results are “regular concern” and that the company’s performance causes great distress to patients.

Synnovis said that “incredibly sorry for the inconvenience and discomfort that caused the affected.”

The company that has fallen victim to Electronic attack ransom in June 2024 That causes more than 1000 NHS operations to be postponed“It greatly reduced our ability to treat samples,” the attack said. Synnovis, which serves six hospitals In London, she added that she “has allocated every supplier available to provide temporary solutions to a large extent largely.”

According to more than ten GPS from which we heard, in all forms of southeast London, the severity of the challenges they face under Synnovis causes anxiety for both patients and doctors.

GPS BBC told the blood test problems leading to unnecessary hospitals and patient dates that were lost. In one case, the BBC was informed of, an elderly man who was interested in his wife with dementia who spent hours in accidents and emergency (A& E) due to problems in his testing.

“It would be so [previously] Our minds never express that blood test may not be reliable. This is now a daily concern.

“Current problems with Synnovis are no less than a national scandal,” they added.

Kimi, a 17 -year -old university student, began experimenting with heart palpitations, shortness of breath and fatigue six months ago.

Unable to join the university because of its health problems, in November, sought a date for her GP surgery, which depends on Synnovis for blood test.

When the results were returned, she was said to be a problem. “I discovered that there is something wrong with the blood test – the potassium was very high, which is unnatural,” she said.

However, Kimi said that GP told her that her potassium levels were not already high, but this result was found because her blood sample had been coagulated because she waited a long time so that it could not be treated.

When I received its results on the NHS application – which the BBC witnessed – she said it was “not valid because of the laboratory error.” Kimi said that the situation left her “frustrating, sad and confused.”

She told us, “I am really stuck. I am depressed, I am worried that something will happen to me before I get a diagnosis.” “I am worried that I will end up with serious harm because I cannot get the diagnosis I need.”

GPS BBC tells that unreliable blood results, with high levels of potassium caused by delay in treatment, are regular since Synnovis began service.

High levels of potassium in the blood can indicate serious health problems, such as heart problems.

For this reason, GPS says they cannot ignore the results of the blood test that indicates a high potassium – even if they think they are incorrect – and they are obligated to refer patients immediately to A& E.

GPS says that these patients are often removed after re -testing in the hospital, where natural potassium levels are discovered.

It is an issue that Dr. Shah – not his real name – says that he is testing weekly.

“if Potassium level Dr. Shah said: “It can cause problems with heart rhythm disorders and heart that can be proven to be fatal. It is an urgent thing that needs to be repeated the sample and make sure that the result is real or a wrong reading.”

Dr. Shah, who had been GP nearly three decades ago, said that the high potassium frequency in blood results was unusually high in surgery in recent years.

“It turns out that there are delays in the set of samples from GP surgeries, then to laboratories … delay in processing in laboratories, which were causing high results,” he said.

Dr. Shah BBC told him that he was recently forced to send a man in his eighties to the hospital where the level of potassium began high in Synnovis blood test. He explained that the patient had arrived at surgery with his wife, who was suffering from dementia and his daughter, and the family was concerned about the long waiting times in the A & E in that evening.

Dr. Shah explained: “I had to tell them that they should not leave the matter until the next day because I thought it was normal, I could not reassure them.” In the hospital, the patient’s potassium level was eventually found to be normal and exit.

“It is possible that two patients are possible to A& E per week because of the results that I think are wrong. SYNNOVIS seized pathology services to southeast London, it was largely a catastrophic catalog.

“We almost guess the pathology system, which is something that has never happened.

“You go to a shoe store, expect to buy a pair of shoes; you have a pathology service, and expect accuracy and reliability. This does not happen.”

Dr. Shah’s account is not alone.

A set of claims was submitted by the 14 GPS from which we heard – who all wanted to remain unknown for professional reasons.

One of them told the British Broadcasting Corporation that the increasing work burden caused by compulsion to evaluation and then escalating unreliable results leads to “increased fatigue and people who want to leave the profession.”

Tell many GPS about modern cases in which they were unable to perform diabetic tests in time for patients due to SYNNOVIS delay.

Londonwide LMCS (local medical committees), the body that represents and supports GPS throughout the capital, said the problems of blood test inaccules that GPS suffers in southeast London was not consistent with pathology service across other parts of the city.

“We had no many emails and questions, regardless of the beginning of Covid, about a specific thing, from one area in London,” said Michel Drag, CEO of Londonwide LMCS.

“This happens on a daily basis, on the basis of their words,” she added.

By admitting the influence caused by problems on the morale and the burden of work in GPS, Dr. Drage said: “We do not think we can rely on Synnovis for accuracy. Our system has lost faith and confidence in that service – this is a terrible situation.”

In October, LondonWide LMCS escalated its concerns to the Southeast London Welfare Council – the corpse assigned to be entitled to the expense of NHS Hospital boxes with Synnovis.

Dr. Drag said that the written response he received was “unclear.”

In addition to hearing the doctors ’certificate, the British Broadcasting Corporation witnessed dozens of Synnovis emails, which were sent to GPS from 2021 to the present day, apologized and tried to calculate various pathology problems, for example malaria and diabetes tests.

One email showed that Synnovis apologizes for accumulating 70,000 test results in the Spring of 2024 – before the electronic attack.

Dr. Jin – not her real name – explained that SYNNOVIS took a month to discover accumulation and start treating it. “It is really difficult to determine this problem … 70,000 concerns,” said GP, which is about 20 years old, told the BBC.

“It’s really stressful. We are trying to protect our patients. I feel I am constantly apologizing for the system. It’s not my fault. We really want to continue our work properly and not manage Synnovis errors.”

The Southeast London Welfare Council said in a statement that the tests requested by GPS southeast London alone amounted to about 10,000 per day, “with a number of logistical steps, from blood to reports.”

He said there had been a “number of accidents” since Synnovis took care of pathology services for southeast London was driven by “a number of factors, including incidents that affected the SYNNOVIS service but were out of control.”

The statement continued: “You will also realize that one of these incidents was a criminal electronic attack, a response that was an extraordinary effort from multiple partners, including Synnovis, to maintain our GP’s viable service, while Synnovis has an important mission to rebuild their systems from A to Z.”

According to a statement issued by NHS England in October, 10,152 of the sharp external dates and 1710 optional procedures were postponed as a result of the electronic attack.

The statement said: “The final stages of recovery after the Internet attack on Synnovis services in June are almost complete, which means almost all services are now working,” the statement said.

In her statement, Synnovis said it provides more than 6000 different types of tests, serving nearly two million patients, six hospitals and 191 GP practices through 249 sites.

“While we understand that any mistake at all can cause the patient’s distress and practitioner, the wrong Synnovis tests represent much less than 0.001 % of the 150,000 tests that we treat daily.”

However, these numbers appear to include all synnovis tests, including urine tests.

SYNNOVIS was added in its statement: “SYNNOVIS’s diseases are enabled to GPS through a group of testing and results systems, programs, a large part of it precedes the Synnovis contract and is provided by the old suppliers.

“We are fully aware that this was a very difficult and sometimes sad period for patients and its colleagues in the national luridal line on the front lines and we do not have incredibly regret the inconvenience and discomfort that caused the affected people.”

For university student Kimi, her recent experiences have lost her confidence in health service.

She said: “I feel I am a young man, and the inability to reach reliable results, the precedent determines that I cannot get an independent health trip when I was seventeen years old. It is difficult to know where I can go from here.

“It may seem just a blood test but it is dangerous. It can be a matter of life and death.”