The Government’s plans to put everyone’s health records into a new single electronic system have come under fire in the British Medical Journal:
It is envisaged that the system will be used to select and book hospital appointments, store and chart health indicators such as blood pressure readings, generate e-mail reminders about calendar appointments and include a database of NHS contacts…
But Dr Pagliari, a senior lecturer in primary care, told the BMJ that challenges still existed over security and standardising different systems.
“Electronic personal health records may improve the quality, safety and efficiency of care and empower patients, but further research is required to demonstrate the benefits and risks.
“Evidence of the impact of electronic personal health records on clinical, safety, economic and psychosocial outcomes is urgently required.”
For example, she said, some patients may not wish sensitive information, such as mental and sexual health data, recorded centrally.
The BBC has more.
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4 Comments
We’ve already had a stab at this project – it was called the NHS IT fiasco, which cost the country something in the region of £12.6 Billion with no tangible results.
I had my first experience of the new Choose & Book system the other week.
I went to see my GP about a spot on my cheek that wasn’t going away. My GP wanted to refer me to a specialist. He didn’t tell me he was using Choose & Book, and he didn’t tell me that I needed to do anything (usually an appointment letter drops through the post a couple of weeks after the GP appointment). After several weeks, I received a letter from the NHS that told me that I had failed to book an appointment. I was unaware that I was meant to. I took it to the surgery, and they told me that I should have received a telephone call telling me to come into the surgery to pick up a two-page printout explaining about Choose & Book, and giving me my username and password. So, they gave me that printout. I then went home to book an appointment online. And, after all that… I had a choice of one hospital – so not a choice. And a huge amount of everyone’s time wasted – and more paper used that is necessary. And all at a cost of billions of pounds.
I’m a GP and my records aren’t going on the spine
For a lot about the NHS, read the Ferret Fancier: http://ferretfancier.blogspot.com/
(No, I’m not in the NHS, but use it, have had to fight it on behalf of a relative until extra resources suddenly made that corner of it work very well. Another relative has had very good outcomes from his use of it since just after it was created. So I don’t want it ruined.)