The NHS is not one entity. The hospitals are run by 100 Trusts. Each has its own management structure. NHS Digital cannot mandate that all trusts use the same IT system - so each has its own mix of software systems, some of which talk to each other and some which don't. Only when one gets data from different trusts does this become apparent. We've done this with ophthalmology audits.
Thanks Irene, a good point which Jane Rendall alluded to in our conversation. Her hope was that public cloud might make it less complex for Trusts with different IT systems to work together
I'm fully in favour of this, it's been far too long coming. The speed with which the Government Digital services were able to set up Covid reporting and ordering of LF Tests shows what can be achieved if the will and budget is there.
10 years ago our GP helped us dig in fibre to provide connectivity to his village and outlying patients. This was because he saw the need for video conferencing. Now his patients are all connected but still the NHS won't let him connect his surgeries to the fibre (community network) and insist they stay on a slow BT openreach connection, and the NHS won't let him video conference because of 'security issues'. The problem as I see it (and why it takes so long) is that there is nobody in the NHS who can make a decision. Great ideas from staff are ignored. Bring back Matron. She would have cut through all this bureaucracy to get the best results for her patients.
Matron indeed! Love it. The people with the real power (in my day) were the Ward Sisters. Wonderful people, complete authority over their domain. That was all destroyed by Salmon in 1967, when the bureaucratic rot set in.
Digitise the NHS? Most hospitals do not even provide hot food for staff working overnight, even at the peak of the pandemic. Nurses were sending out for pizza using delivery services, so getting trusts to implement pretty basic IT when they can't provide a hot meal seems a bit of an ask!
The NHS is not one entity. The hospitals are run by 100 Trusts. Each has its own management structure. NHS Digital cannot mandate that all trusts use the same IT system - so each has its own mix of software systems, some of which talk to each other and some which don't. Only when one gets data from different trusts does this become apparent. We've done this with ophthalmology audits.
Thanks Irene, a good point which Jane Rendall alluded to in our conversation. Her hope was that public cloud might make it less complex for Trusts with different IT systems to work together
I'm fully in favour of this, it's been far too long coming. The speed with which the Government Digital services were able to set up Covid reporting and ordering of LF Tests shows what can be achieved if the will and budget is there.
10 years ago our GP helped us dig in fibre to provide connectivity to his village and outlying patients. This was because he saw the need for video conferencing. Now his patients are all connected but still the NHS won't let him connect his surgeries to the fibre (community network) and insist they stay on a slow BT openreach connection, and the NHS won't let him video conference because of 'security issues'. The problem as I see it (and why it takes so long) is that there is nobody in the NHS who can make a decision. Great ideas from staff are ignored. Bring back Matron. She would have cut through all this bureaucracy to get the best results for her patients.
Matron indeed! Love it. The people with the real power (in my day) were the Ward Sisters. Wonderful people, complete authority over their domain. That was all destroyed by Salmon in 1967, when the bureaucratic rot set in.
oh yes indeed, they had a rod of iron. Our indomitable HR depts have turned it to a rod of jelly.
Digitise the NHS? Most hospitals do not even provide hot food for staff working overnight, even at the peak of the pandemic. Nurses were sending out for pizza using delivery services, so getting trusts to implement pretty basic IT when they can't provide a hot meal seems a bit of an ask!