You would think, wouldn’t you? You would also think that letting her GP know in advance of her move the details of her new GP and surgery would also have done the trick. Wrong. You can speak to receptionists till you are blue in the face trying to speed up the transfer but it makes no difference. My point is that this marvellous new Spine thing has been under development for 6 years at a cost of billions (what else, these days?) and although it is keeping all the professional think-tankers nice and busy with their brainstorming sessions, their training initiatives, their public relations, their travel expenses and their ongoing development, it isn’t even close to doing what it is supposed to do and therefore it is as good as useless.

“[The NPfIT] shows over-confidence in the myth of the superiority of IT and I think government suffers from this in many departments in many areas”- Edward Leigh, chairman of the Public Accounts Committee.      Jane Moore, the present…

On leaving I was advised to seek out some physiotherapy. So I did. I was greeted by what I thought was a trained physiotherapist – no, one who claimed he was more than trained, he was expert. Without asking me or looking at my notes or even my computerised records all held on the NHS Mark I Fully Automatic Non-Refundable IT Model with a Silver Top But Easily Loseable on Trains Computer, he knew what my problem was!! Excellent, I thought as he proceeded to tell me it wasn’t my left knee, the one with the tear, oh, come on, keep up, no, it was my right ankle that was the problem!! As you can imagine, I was stunned by the profundity of his argument. Without propting he asked me my name – presumably just to check – No, I will not hear a bad word about our wonderful NHS and its psychic staff, their record keeping is second to none and the computer is just magic…..I speak as a trained Haematologist of many years standing and some sitting down (but not anymore).

haven’t been able to correct one or two typographical errors, sorry, didn’t want to retype it as it’s been going on for ever as it is…..:0)

The good thing about private health care is that they are so far up their own and each others arses that you are generally guaranteed a better deal ………….. and they have ‘ways’ of speeding things up when records go missing to ensure they cannot be accused of inefficiency.

On the other hand ……….. the NHS always blames it on a different department, on computers and ………….. the poor patient.

Of course it is always the poor patient who loses out.

They also know that these databases are unmanageable.

What really disturbs me is that there are many people employed by GP surgeries ………….. sometimes on a part-time basis – who have no intention of making a career in health ………….. Yet they have access to all kinds of information.

I have reported four people in the past 8 years for the dissemination of information regarding patients. I have threatened many others.

Loose talk costs not just lives but livelihoods. Casually mentioning that somebody enjoys a drink according to their medical records cost a poor woman her job last year. She lost her home and her husband.