nhs IT

Got views on how IT in the NHS should look in 5 years time? The British Computer Society has been asked by the Conservatives to come up with some suggestions, and individuals can make suggestions via

http://www.healthitpolicyreview.info/

full story at

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/08/22/bcs_nhs_it_review/

me personally id change the NHS into a state backed medical insurance company that does nothing other than printing cheques to patients when they need treatment, letting the patients take the cheque anywhere they dam well want including abroad or one of the current private providers, sell off all the NHS providers of care, leaving all the providers free market and left decentralised and choosing their own IT at a business unit level, and the crap providers can close as is essential in the free market to ramp up efficiency through competition, don't suppose that will come out of the review

neither will sacking Patricia Hewitt from the board of BT who are screwing up but making lots of money on the current mess in IT at the NHS

neither will avoiding hiring consultancies like PA to do the procurement like the Govt has for the national ID card IT fiasco, do I really have to do a critique to expose how bad this procurement exercise has been?

Oh and there is a fundamental problem with the BCS review, its being led by folk who are primarily medics, they have replaced the piss poor consultants like Richard Granger, they've realised there is a problem talking to the sales dominated leadership of the large IT consultancies, and they've gone straight to medics with a special fucking interest, I tell you what you need some people who have spent their entire working career designing and implementing successful IT on the review not just fucking medics with a few hair brained ideas, and you also need some people who know how its done in the rest of the world having it dominated by Brits is a big mistake

Also I think "we are aware of the benefits to be gained from patient centred records. We believe that such records, appropriately designed, properly implemented, and made available to those providing health and, where feasible, social care would enable the improvement and efficient management of patient and service user outcomes." shows bias, the best solution to medical records is probably the patient carrying around their own health records on a USB stick or similar, suitably encrypted, rather than the Government holding it all centrally or in Fujitsu data centres opps sorry BT or CSC datacentres thesedays, cannot keep track of the suppliers telling the centralist nutters of the NHS to stick it, patient held records also addresses the issues for folk who travel a lot these days including internationally

The BCS is a failing professional organisation where the vast majority of practioners even at the most senior level in their business do not bother to join it, leaving it dominated by academics and wannabe politicians, and medics with a special interest by the looks of it, not a good place to get a sensible review of nhs IT, I repeat you need some people who have spent their entire working career designing and implementing successful IT - some people with substance not the presentional sales element of the business or the political crowd

The Conservatives can make a donation for this free consultancy to a prostate cancer charity of their choice, its better value then they will get out of the BCS

Zoladex

Zoladex

Lots of morphine

Not seen by consultant but rather a junior doc in outpatients

Given the bad news already deduced by the family and confirmed by the GP

No fucking excuse for having let it get this bad since 2001 with no fucking treatment

Murdering cunts how dare you call yourself a caring profession

Absolute evil organisation that puts out happy positive press releases while delivering such shit care

This is not medicine, this is just boy scout pain relief and token hormone therapy when its already far far too late

Cunts

Great hospital admin isnt it avoiding any surgery on many of your prostate cancer patients, and avoiding any radiotherapy, and even avoiding any interaction by a consultant for the poor sods dying from lack of care, probably helps the consultants concience that he isnt exposed to the death and mysery on his watch

What happened to care by a named consultant? nhs doesnt believe in that does it

Cunts

Been reading some books

One by a Canadian, in it he mentions his parents in their 90s having had multiple hip replacements at each hip, yet all ops being successful and them living happy active lives, travelling all over the place and generally living like a young couple booking into motels and such just for the fun of it - I was struck by how different this is to how life is for old folk in the UK, how unusual it would be here to have multiple successful hip replacements, especially in the nhs

Also been reading the Richard Hammond book about his time after the rocket car crash in an nhs hospital in Leeds, and later BUPA in Bristol and more, his wife goes into great detail about the facilities laid out for them in nhs Leeds, including a private room, she was allowed to sleep in the same bed as him, the consultants ringing round their mates and organising next phase of care etc, all stuff which just doesn't happen for ordinary folk in the nhs, the nhs really has become the worst communist nightmare of some being very much more equal than others, no criticism of Richard or his wife, but I think the obvious double standards from nhs Leeds and elsewhere lead a lot to be desired, you obviously need lots of journalists outside to get good care from the nhs

So the hospital sent him home

So the hospital sent him home

Not actually seen by urology consultant rather handled by the consultants in geriatric medicine aka "let the fuckers die" NHS style, sad that you don't merit actual time with the urology consultant at 70 years old having had prostate cancer for years and no treatment

Sent home with an exotic set of painkillers including morphine

With a diagnosis TO THE PATIENT of osteoporosis of the spine and the medics have gone to great length to tell the patient and family that its all due to wear and tear of the spine and there's nothing that could have been done

Err except he is on cyproterone acetate now, those of us with an education are not as clueless as the medics seem to think

Sent home on the Friday with no notice, no warning to the GPs, and openly "because we need the beds" with only a weekends pain relief

Pleading with the "sorry you need three days to get an appointment to see the GP" receptionists on the Monday for morphine script

And some of the family go to see the GP, explain gently that actually we may have working class accents but we are not total fuckwits, and we know dam well what cyproterone acetate is, and what the diagnosis and lack of treatment has been all along, and can they please find out from the hospital what the fuck is going on AND HAVE THE DECENCY TO TELL THE PATIENT HE IS DYING

The GPs seem as genuinely pissed off with the hospital as I am, and after a lots of bollocks about patient confidentiality, and the patient making clear the close family have his full permission to know what's going on, the whole sorry mess is confirmed by the GP

That patient as ever thinks the medics are gods

The NHS is failing in the most spectacular fashion

No doubt the Healthcare commission will make more gentle remarks about low numbers of urology surgeons, and the trust will put more nurses in place to talk to the patients, and ever more people will die

Die while the waiting lists for treatment look remarkably short and impressive

Die in beds where if you reach out you can touch your fellow patients in the next beds, making cross infection inevitable

Die a good 10 or 20 years before you would have done in another equivalent Western nation, cos they would have actually treated you

Meanwhile the country continues to pour massive sums into the cancer charities when the NHS doesn't even bother with routine proven treatments already discovered and in widespread use in the rest of the world and sporadically within the NHS

This is the saddest outrageous shambles and I really don't know if I can carry on with this blog, it's all too sad