Blood testing delayed by virus

A COMPUTER virus has sparked major problems for patients waiting for blood test results at a Swansea hospital.

They say the situation, which came to light on Monday, led some blood tests to be cancelled, and raised fears that the work of the trust's pathology department in Morriston Hospital would be hampered all week.

But a spokeswoman for Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University NHS Trust said the problem was resolved yesterday morning and the service was now back to normal.

Originally, city GPs were asked to hold back non-urgent blood tests while the IT department dealt with the virus.

It is understood other Welsh NHS trusts and UK businesses have been hit by the computer bug, which affects Microsoft programmes.

One Swansea patient, who did not wish to be named, said she feared the virus could have caused chaos for those waiting for blood tests.

She said: "We were told blood tests would be cancelled for the rest of the week because of a virus in the system at Morriston Hospital."

But the trust spokeswoman said all GPs had been contacted to be told the service was up and running again.

She said: "The problem was solved by yesterday morning and the computer was back online."

She said the organisation was full of praise for the efforts of workers in the pathology department, who gave up their time over the weekend to help.

Every weekday, the department processes between 4,000 and 5,000 patient samples — approximately 60,000 tests.

The spokeswoman said: "Trust pathology staff responded by giving up their time over the weekend. They worked right through Sunday night to manually process test data, after the problem emerged on Saturday.

"However, the high volume of blood tests routinely dealt with daily by the pathology department means manual processing would not be able to keep on top of the workload.

"GPs were asked on Monday morning to temporarily defer sending patients for non-urgent blood tests. This was to ensure that urgent blood tests, particularly for seriously ill patients, were prioritised.

"In addition, because blood has a limited shelf life, a backlog of routine tests could mean patients having to give non-urgent samples a second time, so it is better for patients to wait a short while in the first place.

"We are pleased to say that GPs have been very supportive and co-operated with our request, allowing us to deal with all the urgent blood tests.

"The pathology department processes between 4,000 and 5,000 patient samples each weekday. This approximates to around 60,000 tests.

The spokeswoman added: "An automated communication system, linking several computers, processes the test data at a speed at least 20 times faster than can be done manually."

The conficker virus, which attacks Microsoft systems, has caused problems for organisations worldwide.