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The £13bn scheme to computerise National Health Service records has encountered so many problems that it is now having a detrimental effect on patient care. Either due to glitches or staff not knowing how to operate it, serious medical appointments via the Connecting for Health network were lost, deferred, omitted or cancelled. Patients without appointments, such as those in accident and emergency, have also been delayed, alongside those suffering with cancer and potentially infectious MRSA. At the Buckingham Hospitals NHS Trust, errors with the newly installed network meant that patients with the contagious disease were not isolated for up to 17 days. At Barts and the London NHS trusts, targets of treating emergency patients within four hours weren’t met, mainly because staff were unfamiliar with the system. At the Barnet and Chase Farm Hospitals Trust, “non-clinical” reasons were cited in March for having to cancel operations at the last minute for a total of 272 patients. In the same month, a further 20 patients of the trust were not called for post-operative check ups because the system to track them “was not operational” on the new network. In April, the hospitals uncovered further failings when they found the network’s programme to flag up possible child-abuse victims on the wards wasn’t working. As a result, the responsibility fell to the front-desk “receptionist”, according to board minutes of the trust, and other trusts in London which ran the system, seen by the Observer. Conservative health spokesman Stephen O’Brien told the paper that well-implemented IT projects can bring huge benefits but that these weren’t being achieved. Moreover, he reflected that the minutes prove that “all the risks” of implementing the world’s largest civilian IT programme were now “falling on the patients.” Despite recently acknowledging “teething problems” with the London roll-out, department of Health officials also said it would improve diagnosis and treatment times in the long-run. Last week, the department announced the appointment of two new leaders of Connecting for Health, both of whom come with strong private sector expertise. Christine Connelly was appointed the department’s first chief information officer for health, having worked as an independent consultant after being CIO for Cadbury Schweppes. Martin Bellamy has also joined CfH as director of programme and system delivery, from the Department for Work and Pensions, after working as a consultant for KPMG. Aug 12, 2008 Email this article Printer friendly page Previous Page
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