A GP surgery in Basingstoke has apologised for a system outage preventing patients from booking appointments or requesting repeat prescriptions, following criticisms over its “complete lack of communication”.

The Camrose, Gillies, Hackwood and Beggarwood (CGHB) Surgery has confirmed that the problems with its website and Dr iQ app were not caused by a data breach, despite it referring the matter to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

It apologised to patients for the inconvenience caused by the app not working and said it will be releasing a ‘new and improved’ Dr. iQ app ‘soon’, which patients will have to download.

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(Image: Newsquest) However, Councillor Kim Taylor, a Labour Councillor representing Basingstoke Central Division and Labour group leader at Hampshire County Council, criticised Operose for its poor communication with patients.

She said she is “extremely disappointed by the way this issue has been handled and the complete lack of communication with patients on what to do to book appointments and request repeat prescriptions without Dr. iQ”.

Cllr Taylor asked the Operose Health run surgery to communicate with patients within 24 hours after the problems arose at the end of September but said the company only issued a “tiny statement on a temporary website”. Its usual website was down because of the issues.

She said: “Operose surgeries have access to a text messaging service they could have used, instead we have patients confused about how to access health care.”

She added: “I understand the need to preserve an organisation’s reputation but this is not the way to do it. Communication is a vital part of contingency planning which has clearly failed in this case. I have referred this matter to the attention of the Hampshire Public Health Directorate.”

Cllr Taylor said the surgery’s patient participation group (PPG) had been unable to find out what was going on. She asked the Integrated Care Board to provide information at a meeting on October 22, when councillors were informed that on September 30 there had been ‘some suspicious activity’ and that systems were taken down as a precaution.

The matter was then reported by Operose to the ICO and it was later confirmed that an investigation had not found any breach of data.

Cllr Taylor said: “Councillors were also told that the systems will remain down, and that Operose says it is working with a new supplier on a new version of the Dr. iQ app which they hope will be operational in a few weeks. In the meeting both councillors expressed concern about the lack of communications with patients, the PPG and with local councillors.”

The CGHB Surgery has been asked for further information. 

Patients who need to request a repeat prescription can do so through the NHS app. For further information visit https://operosegp.co.uk/operose-health-cghb-gp-practices/.