NHS IT mess hits everyone

Oh yes, I've had first hand experience with NHS IT system. I never did write any follow up on my broken wrist saga, but I'm so glad that the debacle that is the new NHS IT system has been brought up by BBC. Read the story here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7477099.stm

Please don't get me wrong. I have only praises for the very competent doctors & caring nurses on the NHS Trust hospitals, both the Royal London and Mile End Hospital. It is the utter lack of competence of the admin staff that or the IT system that I despise.

I can go on for a whole day listing my grief about the NHS admin/IT system but I think BBC has sum it pretty well. To cut long story short, I was sent to the wrong department twice (out of 4 appointments), system down for days when I urgently needed an appointment with no back up system (you'd thought for a hospital you have a backup for such an important system), not entered to the system properly, appointments not booked properly and gosh the list goes on. My local GP has been very helpful, but even she is powerless against this administration tragedy (ie: she can't get me an appointment to the correct department without going through the system).

It is indeed a debacle of astronomical proportion. To save life, I think NHS should go back to paper & pen system.

Anyway enough ranting for now. Let's just hope someone can fix this mess soon. I wasn't being serious about the pen & paper system. And I do agree that the NHS needs to have a top class IT system. It's the implementation that is a mess, this can't last for much longer.