[Last updated: 8th February 2025]
A number of fixes have been deployed, please try refreshing your web browser (Control + F5) if you are not seeing them, or use a different web browser.
Dear colleagues,
I am pleased to confirm that the SOAR changes have been deployed as planned (28th January). However, there's been a few reported issues which the developers have and are resolving. The main message first and foremost - nothing has been lost.
We have a copy of the database as backup taken on the morning of the go live - unless you tried to make changes or submissions etc on that morning, everything will have copied across ok and we can cross check any further missing items from there.
The issues/fixes are as below:
| ID | Issue | Status | Description and Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wrong appraiser details | Fix deployed on morning of 29th January. | Some primary care appraisees are seeing their own contact details appearing in their appraiser details |
| 2 | Missing text in previous domains | Fix deployed on afternoon of 29th January. | Due to the GMP changes, some of the comments were merged into different places. The developers have moved them into comments boxes in different supporting information areas. As per previous messages, so long as the information is there, do not worry about it appearing in the wrong places and proceed with the appraisal as is. |
| 3 | Missing reflections | Fixes deployed on afternoons of 30th January and 3rd February. | Reflections missing in collective and individual CPD and PDP. This should now be brought back, all the previous text has been merged to one description box in the relevant CPD boxes. If the information is missing still then please let us know. |
| 4a | Login issues (general) | Fix deployed on morning of 31st January. | There was a redirect issue for users who bookmarked the login.aspx page, this has now been resolved. If the problem remains, please navigate to https://soar.appraisal.nes.scot.nhs.uk try hitting the Control and F5 keys to refresh your web browser. |
| 4b | Login issues (logged in as trainee) | Not a bug - users just need to link their trainee profile and SOAR appraisal account. | Some users are logging in to SOAR via their Turas login but are pointed to their trainee profile on SOAR. This is likely because users have more than one Turas account and they've logged in using a different account. To resolve this, login to SOAR, into the trainee profile, click on "My details" from the menu, click on "Turas" tab along the top right, and follow on screen instructions to be sent to the SOAR login page, enter your SOAR appraisal account login details. Thereafter your accounts will be linked. |
| 4c | Login issues (More than one Turas account) | Fix deployed on morning of 7th February. | Some users who have more than one Turas account are having issues logging in to SOAR as SOAR can only be linked to one Turas account. The developers have enabled SOAR to accept linkage to more than one Turas account. |
| 5a | Form 4 issues | Fix deployed on morning of 31st January. | Due to change in GMP domains, for all old Form 4s signed off before the changes on 28th January, you can only access this via the "Export to PDF" button. If you are not seeing this button, please try hitting the Control and F5 keys to refresh your web browser, that should enable the buttons. |
| 5b | Appraisers accessing old Form 4 | IN PROGRESS | Some Appraisers have reported issues when accessing an appraisee's previous Form 4s, the PDF button is missing. Some users reported that using the Control F5 method to reload the page helped resolve the issue. This has been escalated to the developers for their urgent investigation. |
| 6 | Accessing previously submitted appraisal forms | INVESTIGATED | Reported issues of appraisers and appraisees unable to access the submitted forms. Of all the reported issues experienced, it appears that the submissions were made on the morning of the SOAR deployment, so the PDFs were not included in the SOAR backup files when things were being transferred over. Unfortunately this means the appraisees will need to re-add the documents (which are there in the "Add existing" documents function) and then resubmit the forms. Please see below steps for more information. |
| 7 | Issues with unlocking old Form 4s and adding further documents | IN PROGRESS | Please avoid unlocking old Form 4s - we will respond to those impacted ASAP after the developers have completed their review. This is being investigated and is treated as a priority. |
| 8 | Missing documents | INVESTIGATED | To reassure everyone, the documents are on SOAR, just not attached to current appraisal. This issue is linked to the GMP change error we experienced (we couldn't link them to any supporting information category as we had no way of mapping them from previous domains). They are in the "add existing" function of the "Add documents" button. These documents just needs to be manually re-added back to the appraisal forms. Please see below steps to re-add documents back in. |
| 9 | Warning message asterisked questions not saving | Disregard warning message | There are warning messages on various pages on SOAR for appraisees to let them know which sections have mandatory questions/sections to complete. Unfortunately these messages are on screen permanently - please disregard if you have completed the relevant sections - the pages will save correctly. We will consider improving this in the next iteration of development. |
| 10 | Broken links in system emails | Fix deployed on morning of 6th February. | There has been some reported issues of users following links in SOAR email notifications being met with broken link error messages. Please proceed to login via https://soar.appraisal.nes.scot.nhs.uk and manually navigate to the relevant sections. A fix for this was deployed on the morning of 6th February. If this has not resolved the issue for you please get back in touch with details or any error messages encountered. |
| 11 | Downloading of MSF report | Fix deployed on morning of 6th February. | Users have reported that the MSF report downloaded from WASP could not be opened or downloaded, and instead are being redirected back to the new SOAR appraisee interface. The developers have identified the issue and a fix has been deployed. |
| 12 | Admins not receiving Form 4 notifications | IN PROGRESS | Admins have reported that they have stopped receiving notifications of when Form 4s are completed. This is being investigated and we will update ASAP. |
| 13 | Clicking on document links from old SOAR redirecting to new SOAR | Fix deployed on morning of 6th February. | Some users have reported that when they click on a document link from old SOAR, they are being redirected to the new setup. The developers have identified the issue and a fix has been deployed. |
| 14 | Security violation messages | RESOLVED | Some users have reported an issue when accessing Form 4s. [05/02/2025] This was linked to a fix that was deployed this morning which we have rolled back - this issue should be resolved now. Apologies |
| 15 | Submission error | Fix deployed on morning of 6th February. | Some users reported issues with submissions where the spinning circle just hangs. This has now been resolved - if problem persists, please try Control and F5 keys to refresh the page. |
| 16 | Primary care Form 4 incorrect "issues" flagged | IN PROGRESS | GP Appraisers have reported issues where Form 4 has incorrectly flagged the Probity statement as "issues" - please disregard and click "Resolved" - this error was down to the new simplified form. Developers will work on this and deploy a fix soon. |
As developers continue to work on fixes (some are taking longer than others to resolve), we plan to deploy adhoc fixes (only as needed) every morning at 9:30am until 14th February until all reported issues are resolved. These deploys should only take minutes and may slow the system down briefly. Our apologies about this in advance.
I am sorry for the bugs and glitches experienced, if you come across any other please contact the helpdesk and we will assist further from you. Please try not to send multiple tickets though - if you have already submitted a ticket, reply via that instead of creating another, it will greatly help us manage and respond to your queries quicker.
As of February 8th there are 100+ tickets awaiting our response. We are slightly understaffed at the moment so please bear with us as we work through the helpdesk to get to you. (Prior to this we normally get around 20 tickets a day.)
We organised a series of lunch time drop-in webinars to demo the changes and more importantly an opportunity to answer any questions you may have.
We have edited the recordings of one these sessions and you can access it as part of the SOAR user guides section. A summary of the Q&As will be collated and added to in due course.
Thank you again for your patience and continued support.
Kind regards,
William Liu
Training Manager (Medical Appraisal)
This page was last updated on: 08/02/2025
Posted: 08/02/2025
