"Patient Access security issue"

I have been with Walm Lane Surgery for some years, and they have been consistently excellent: a great clinical team, and a really lovely and efficient reception team, for which I have been so appreciative.

The new developments in on-line access to advice have also been very useful. But when they go wrong, there is potentially a serious problem, as I discovered.

On Tuesday 26 March, late afternoon, I couldn't log in to the Patient Access site. I received an email, however, indicating that it had been accessed, and I was very concerned that someone had accessed my account, and that my records may have been hacked.

I called the surgery who told me to ring back in the morning.

I eventually found contact details for Patient Access Support Team and emailed them, but didn't hear back for 15 hours, and when I did, they had clearly not understood the issue.

The problem with the site itself did not last more than a few hours; but it took weeks to get any information from the Patient Access Support Team.

If, however, this had been a major hacking incident (and there have been a few, recently), the perpetrators would have had plenty of time to run riot, overnight, with the NHS database while it appeared that everyone was sleeping; and there really is no explanation to date as to why the response to a serious concern raised by a worried patient has not been taken more seriously, or treated with more urgency.

I have been trying, now, for a month, to arrange a meeting with the practice manager, to discuss my concerns around the security of the Patient Access system and the arrangements for response by the surgery in the event of a problem; but it would seem that the practice management are too busy to spare half an hour to look at ways of resolving what I consider to be a serious issue.

For a practice which is excellent in every other way, this disregard for security and for the genuine concern of a patient by the practice management is very disappointing.