British Medical Association criticises the "breakneck speed" at which NHS patient database of Summary Care Records is being set up.

BBC News reports unease among doctors at this fast-developing IT project, amid security fears and other concerns.

Hamish Meldrum, chairman of the BMA, has said: "Patients' right to opt out is crucial, and it is extremely alarming that records are apparently being created without them being aware of it.

"If the process continues to be rushed, not only will the rights of patients be damaged, but the limited confidence of the public and the medical profession in NHS IT will be further eroded."

I expressed my own concerns about this in an earlier post on this blog. Government databases have a notorious record of insecurity.

Is the Government trying to do a quick fix stitch-up with NHS IT service before the election?

Well I believe it is. - Yesterday in the post I received a letter and a booklet from the NHS, explaining about a new wheeze they intend to set in place. It's called the NHS Summary Care Record. They want to hold on the internet a central database of Summary Care Records (SCRs) for NHS patients. See http://www.nhscarerecords.nhs.uk/about .

The letter and booklet explain over and over and over again that if you are in agreement with having your records on the internet that you need to do nothing. There's less information about what to do if, like me, you don't trust the security of sensitive personal details being put onto the internet.

If you don't want your health records to be put onto the internet, given the government's deplorable history of lax security of personal data, then you can ring your GP surgery and make your wishes known, or you can download a form from that http://www.nhscarerecords.nhs.uk/about website and fill it in and post it.

This article on BBC News questions the Conservative Party's claim that the "government is trying to fix a quick deal with suppliers for its controversial £12.7bn NHS IT programme ahead of the next General Election". "Industry insiders and the Conservative Party allege the deals, which would be in place by the end of March, would "tie the hands" of whoever forms the next government."

"Shadow health minister Stephen O'Brien told File on 4 that Whitehall is trying to reset these contracts within the next four weeks, which could make it harder for whoever forms the next administration to cancel them."

You may like to listen to File on 4 tonight for further insight and information about this matter.

File on 4 is broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Tuesday, 2 March 2010, at 2000 GMT, repeated Sunday, 7 March, at 1700 GMT. You can listen via the BBC iPlayer or download the podcast.

Multi-billion pound NHS IT system may be cancelled.

BBC News reports that the Chancellor, Alistair Darling, is likely, in his forth-coming pre-Budget report, to axe the extremely expensive, problem-ridden NHS IT programme. - Well thank goodness for that!

You know that flagship £12billion NHS IT system that didn't work? - It still doesn't work, four years later...

NHS IT system 'at a standstill'
Article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"Ministers want the computer programme, one of the largest in the world, to eventually contain the medical records of every patient in the country.

But NHS bosses in London have decided to halt the roll-out of the electronic care records to hospitals indefinitely, to sort out technical problems.

Across the south of the country no new hospitals are due to start implementing the system, because the NHS is still trying a replacement to Fujitsu, the Japanese computer giant, which pulled out of a contract to provide the programme earlier this year.

Problems have dogged the ambitious project, which is already four years late, from the start.

Last month NHS bosses attempted to resolve a damaging row over the confidentiality of medical records by agreeing that patients would have to "opt in" rather than "opt out" of the system, as had been originally planned.

In recent month managers at the Royal Free Hospital Trust in London have struggled with technical problems with the new software, prompting NHS London to call an indefinite halt to the project.

The organisation had hoped to introduce the system to three new hospital trusts in London by the end of this year, bringing the total number in the capital to seven, but those plans have now been shelved.

A spokesman for NHS London said: "Because of the general problems and in particular the problems at the Royal Free we have decided to stop any further roll out in other London trusts until these have been sorted out."

Information Technology is not always useful in the NHS.

Finger on the Pulse
Telegraph article by Max Pemberton (a doctor).

Extract:

"In the hospital where I worked last year there was much celebration when laptops were introduced on every ward, with all-singing, all-dancing software. The computers stood proudly on portable stands that could be wheeled from patient to patient. "Oooh, it's like being on the Starship Enterprise," was the response from medical staff for the first few days.

Did they make life easier? Did they improve patient care? Of course not. People forgot to plug them in, and the batteries died half-way through ward rounds. Or they were plugged in and nurses tripped over the wires. They kept crashing, then the system was updated and no one could work it. Then it wasn't compatible with the other hospitals' systems. Now the computers sit in the corner gathering dust, while everyone hand-writes their notes again.

Yet to question whether our reliance on IT is actually beneficial is a modern-day heresy. My concern is that as we integrate more and more of our personal data and sensitive medical information, an increasing number of people have access to it. Thus the possibility for human error is magnified and any benefit we may have gleaned from it evaporates amid the potential for serious personal loss and violation.

Plans for the ID card scheme continue to push ahead, and now the idea is to incorporate in them medical information taken from NHS records. This is in addition to the electronic patient register, set to be compulsory for every NHS user. There'll be no opt-out clause, which means that highly sensitive medical records will be accessible to more than a million NHS employees as well as to government bureaucrats. The pilot scheme was extended last week to include six more GP practices in Dorset, with others planned to follow.

Despite reassurance from ministers that our data will be safe, I don't believe them. How can they be sure? It's not as if their track record is particularly admirable (remember the two lost discs containing the entire child benefit database?)."

IT delays are 'endangering patients', it is thought.

IT delays 'endangering patients' - Guardian

Extract:

"Patient safety across the NHS in England is being put at risk by long delays in a £12bn programme to modernise IT systems, according to a study of opinion among senior managers reported today by the British Medical Journal.

The study found that hospitals were left relying on outdated patient information systems and some were considering buying interim programmes while they wait for the agency responsible for IT procurement, Connecting for Health, to deliver on its promises."


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Many IT problems affecting NHS hospitals

Hospitals suffer in computer fiasco - Telegraph

Extract:

"Hospitals have been hit by 200 "major incidents" in four months because of breakdowns in the NHS's £12 billion computer system, a report claims today.

The problems, affecting dozens of hospitals between last October and January, led to doctors being unable to call up X-rays on computer screens in wards and operating theatres, creating delays in treatment. Some hospitals also lost access to records on appointments and planned treatments.

The report in Computer Weekly magazine is another blow to the Government's scheme to centralise the records of 50 million patients and link 30,000 GPs to 300 hospitals by 2012."


Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)