Comments on: IT’s in the Sick Bay.

By: Anna Raccoon

Anna Raccoon — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 16:34:29 +0000

You can take pleasure in assuming responsibility for having done so, instead of feeling helpless in the face of nameless incompetents who have done so on your behalf.

By: Scout

Scout — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 16:23:52 +0000

What hapens if I lose my notes?

By: Tony Collins's IT Projects Blog

Tony Collins's IT Projects Blog — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 08:23:22 +0000

What’s happening with the NPfIT?…

Article on ComputerWeekly.com on Alistair Darling’s announcement that the “NHS had a quite expensive IT system that, frankly, isn’t essential to the frontline. It’s something that I think we don’t need to go ahead with just now …”It’s quite re…

By: Tim

Tim — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 21:52:55 +0000

Coming to this late – but wanted to say I agree totally. My body, my notes. Not only am I more likely to keep them properly than the Government is, but it avoids the security nightmares of having all these notes stored in one system. This risks not only snooping (newspapers paying for “celebs” medical details) but worse hacking and alteration of notes (a good murder plot there at least!).
As others have noted, this is really about power. While they keep all (your) information they can contril more easily who you can get to for what, and whether you can get second opinions etc (Private Doctors tend to be as wary as the NHS about giving patients test results, as it makes it too easy for you to go elsewhere).
One of the maddest parts of the NHS debate in the UK is the assumption that if you don’t like the NHS you must be in favour of the US system (which is bizarrely state funded to a massive degree, but in ways people shut their eyes too). Most European countries run a mixed state supported private insurance model that works very well. However the Tories have decided that the NHS is safe with them, so the insanity will continue.

By: Thaddeus J. Wilson

Thaddeus J. Wilson — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 09:16:03 +0000

It’s enough to get your back up, isn’t it?

By: Gloria Smudd

Gloria Smudd — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 23:25:30 +0000

This ‘Spine’ is somehow expected to work in conjunction with all the little tin-pot systems already in place in all the hospitals and surgeries in the UK. It won’t. Expect another

By: Jago

Jago — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 23:13:08 +0000

I recall the illustration:
If, on the day on which Queen Victoria died, you threw half a million quid into the fire and repeated that act every day until the present time you would not yet have burned as much money as this computer system has cost.

By: ivan

ivan — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 21:06:00 +0000

Hi Anna,
The thing you missed about the NHS computer system is the present governments obsession with control of the population – it’s all on the database.

By: Old Holborn

Old Holborn — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 19:43:16 +0000

Let Amazon build the NHS system.

No really.

By: john ward

john ward — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 17:45:42 +0000

Good to see that Treasury lies about ‘

By: RogerDodger

RogerDodger — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 16:42:36 +0000

She’s back…

Masterful work.
As much as it pains me to learn about society from the French, we are so many many miles wide of the mark in the UK.

By: Fred Thrung

Fred Thrung — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 15:27:53 +0000

Welcome back Ms Raccoon! I reely reely hope you will continue to keep an eye on Thaddeus (and Gloria, bless!) and interject from time to time.

I’ve been there too (not France, but similar system). I have a skeletal thing which needs to have an eye kept on it. When I came back to the UK after my first extended absence I handed my most recent Xrays (one month old) to my new doctor. He handed them back to me, said they weren’t acceptable (foreigners don’t know as much as we do), and sent me to the local hospital to go through the NHS system which we all know and love. So additional Xrays (thanks, NHS) and an unneccessary wait to get the results back.

I still have *my* Xrays from the other country, but since I can’t see my UK Xrays, I cannot check progress myself. So I need to bother my GP who has better things to do than a blink test on a couple of photos.

By: microdave

microdave — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 15:04:43 +0000

I can see a problem with this if it were ever introduced in the U.K. Oh, sorry, EU regions 1-8 or whatever we are now.

This wonderfully simple system assumes that the patient is actually responsible, and capable of thinking for him/herself. As we now have a generation who have to be told what to do, and demand instant treatment when they get a sniffle, the risk that the wart may actually be something worse could lead to mass panic….

And think of the carbon footprint with all those sheets of A4!

By: Gloria Smudd

Gloria Smudd — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 14:33:14 +0000

Sound of hammer hitting nail squarely on the head, Mme Raccoon.

By: Vimes

Vimes — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 13:56:58 +0000

With respect, anyone who uses the word “crowdsourcing” shouldn’t be trusted to organise the proverbial in a brewery – how hard can it be and what could possibly go wrong?

By: Rog

Rog — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 13:52:56 +0000

Wot! no translating into 82 different languages? No queuing behind ‘pregnant women of the world unite’?
We recently moved from the east of England to the west of England. Two months on my partner’s medical notes have still not arrived and she has been told they possibly never will.
She has a serious illness and all medical notes now start from day 1 again.
Bet your really jealous of our system.

By: Sabot

Sabot — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 13:49:58 +0000

Wonderful, isn’t it. And they even record how much you paid the doctor and the pharmacist, and then send you your money back, straight to your bank. You don’t have to do a thing.

I still can’t get over this. I might start going to the doctor more often, he even tells me what’s wrong with me in French, so I get a free French lesson as well.