A COMPUTER system error which saw approximately 7,300 hospital discharge letters fail to reach GP surgeries created “a risk to both patient safety and continuity of care”, the body representing family doctors has said.

Health Minister Tom Binet confirmed last week that the issue with “third-party software which links the hospital to GP computer systems” had affected 27% of the total number of discharge letters issued from February 2026 onwards.

Dr Maitiú Ó Tuathail, speaking on behalf of the Primary Care Body – which represents GPs in Jersey – told the JEP that “all surgeries have been affected” by the IT error.

“It will lead to an increase in workload for all practices once the discharge letters are sent to each practice, as each practice will have to review them all individually and take relevant action as required,” he said.

“This will continue for several weeks: although this creates a significant administrative burden for GPs, patient safety is paramount and we are working with the hospital to resolve the issue satisfactorily.”

The doctor added that GPs had been aware of the issue “for some time” before Senator Binet’s statement.

“This current problem has been identified and plans are afoot to address it,” he said.

“But GPs have been raising concerns with regards to receiving delayed hospital discharges for some time.

“In some cases, several weeks after a patient has been discharged from hospital, which creates a risk to both patient safety and continuity of care.”

Dr Ó Tuathail further stated that he hopes Jersey will adopt the strategy used in the UK for relaying hospital discharge information.

“In large parts of the United Kingdom, patients, and their GP, receive a copy of their hospital discharge letter on leaving the hospital and we would hope that following this recent significant event, this will be the accepted standard of patient care in Jersey,” he said.

“We have been informed that this is now both a ministerial and hospital management priority and we welcome that.”

One Islander, who wished to remain anonymous, told the JEP that she “started crying in the consultation room” when she realised that her hospital discharge information had not been passed on to her GP after undergoing emergency surgery.

After her operation on 28 April, she was “shocked” to find out that her GP did not have information about her medication or prescriptions when she went for a consultation nearly two weeks later on 7 May.

“There had been enough stress with what had already happened to me, and then I had the added stress of the fact that the hospital hadn’t even sent my notes to the doctor,” she said.

“I think it is just appalling, I don’t want to sit here and criticise the public services – it is not the fault of the doctors – it is the system that is not in place, when everybody thinks it is working as it normally is.”

The woman added that patients should “not be expected” to remember crucial medical information in the immediate aftermath of surgery.

“Around the time I was discharged, I had only had my operation not even 24 hours before – I still had the anaesthetic wearing off,” she explained.

“Luckily, my situation was resolved, but I just worry when I think of an older woman who I was sharing a ward with – if she was discharged, would she have been able to recall the information as well?”