New NHS computer system doesn’t work
October 1, 2009
Recent reports have found that a new computer system that is being rolled out across the NHS may not be fit for purpose. The government is spending £12.7 billion on a project to try and upgrade NHS IT systems but many are reporting that the new system simply doesn’t work.
Electronic patient records will now all be stored on the new system. However one of the first trusts to use the new IT says that more than 14,000 of its patients have been forced to wait longer than the government allows because of a massive backlog on the system. The NHS says that no patient should have to wait for treatment in a hospital more than eighteen weeks after being referred by their GP. However London’s NHS Trust who had the computer system installed last year already says that it has a backlog of 22,000 patients on its eighteen week electronic waiting list. Doctors also report that many patient records have gone missing since being entered onto the system.
Shockingly those who have installed the new system and who are having problems with it now face being penalized by a government that introduced it. The London NHS Trust is now being labeled as underperforming by the government and could face hefty fines.
Doctors have reported that staff in the trust’s hospitals are not always sure exactly how the new system works and have complained that much of the data is not entirely accurate. Health officials have announced that as far as they are aware no one on the new electronic waiting lists has come to any harm because of the delays.
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