New NHS System

[minestrone]

Price is one issue, but ISTM that the problem with that is consultancies on a gravy train, and the Tories were no better, except possibly in that, by not trying to do so much, they didn't fail so much.

Whether an online booking and management system would be better than the manual system is another question: I think the answer is yes.

Certainly I have long since tired of explaining to medical receptionists that I work out of the country, my ideal appointement would be at the weekend but failing that I want to mimimise the time off work, for example by having the last appointment on a Friday, or having one at the start or end of a Mon or Fri with a lot of notice so that I can plan to do several things in an unpaid day off, especially if poss see the consultant in the morning and then follow-up with the GP in the same afternoon; but at any rate it is more important to me to get a less inconvenient and costly appointement than to have one soon etc etc etc ..... only to be asked brightly, "so is Wednesday 20th at 11:30 OK for you then?"

As for cancer drugs, the NHS can't afford them no matter what it does. It could afford more if they had fewer expensive IT projects. It could also afford more if taxes were increased. You pays your money ....

Do you really expect the NHS to bend to your needs becasue they work offshore. Next management meeting "aye but what about the guy from Fife who works off shore, this is not going to suit him" "yes you are right, back to the drawing board"

To be honest the SNP are screwing it up even more, they made a big thing about nurses doing clinics in supermarkets, the nurses refused to do anything without a GP backup, total failure but Mr and Mrs Fish are still going on about it and what a great idea it was.

[Mich the Tester]

I see so much bad code that I automatically work out how bad something is. This might be only as bad as my online banking making me choose which account, when I only have one. It's inelegant but I know that it happens because I might have more than one.

It is IMHO not as bad as Windows giving you a fatal error message in a dialog box with only one button, "OK".

I saw a great bug once which presented a dialog box saying ‘are you sure you want to remove all of this customer’s details?’, with one button; OK.

Anyway, as for the cost of the whole thing; can anyone explain to me how to spend 20 billion pounds on an IT system without involving yachts, private jets or villas in the south of France?

[Mich the Tester]

Do you really expect the NHS to bend to your needs becasue they work offshore. Next management meeting "aye but what about the guy from Fife who works off shore, this is not going to suit him" "yes you are right, back to the drawing board"

The guy from Fife who works offshore is probably paying enough tax to pay one of the developers (or ten in India) full time to build something that suits him.

[minestrone]

The guy from Fife who works offshore is probably paying enough tax to pay one of the developers (or ten in India) full time to build something that suits him.

That's not the point, he is asking for the doctors to be there at the weekend, software cannot do that no matter how good.

When you pay someone 150,000 grand a year don't expect them to want to work weekends.

[Moscow Mule]

That's not the point, he is asking for the doctors to be there at the weekend, software cannot do that no matter how good.

When you pay someone 150,000 grand a year don't expect them to want to work weekends.

No, he's expecting to be able to book an appointment weeks in advance at a time that suits him (within working hours) so he can minimise disruption to his life.

It's not too hard really. It's just that the people you get working as doctor's receptionist (in my experience) can't understand such a basic requirement. If you don't fit in their box you've got a problem...

[expat]

Do you really expect the NHS to bend to your needs becasue they work offshore.

No. Don't be obtuse. I gave one example that I know of (me) who happens to find it easier to choose online than to try to get it done in a manual system. The same would apply to many others, including shif-workers, part-time workers, people with kids, etc etc. I merely point out the advantage of user choice, in opposition to the earlier suggestion that the old manual system worked fine.

[minestrone]

No, he's expecting to be able to book an appointment weeks in advance at a time that suits him (within working hours) so he can minimise disruption to his life.

It's not too hard really. It's just that the people you get working as doctor's receptionist (in my experience) can't understand such a basic requirement. If you don't fit in their box you've got a problem...

If you cannot go through the process of booking a visit to the doctors with a receptionist then I would say you have completely unrealistic requirements or a complete lack of communication skills.

People are quite happy to take the day off to wait for a new TV getting delivered but as soon as it's booking a visit to the doctors it all changes.

[expat]

I saw a great bug once which presented a dialog box saying ‘are you sure you want to remove all of this customer’s details?’, with one button; OK.

Anyway, as for the cost of the whole thing; can anyone explain to me how to spend 20 billion pounds on an IT system without involving yachts, private jets or villas in the south of France?

ah yes, I remember the pleasure I got from coding that

[Moscow Mule]

If you cannot go through the process of booking a visit to the doctors with a receptionist then I would say you have completely unrealistic requirements or a complete lack of communication skills.

Ok, do a test. I want you to find the next available appointment on a Friday afternoon after 3pm.

Good luck.

People are quite happy to take the day off to wait for a new TV getting delivered but as soon as it's booking a visit to the doctors it all changes.

Bollocks.

[Mich the Tester]

Ok, do a test. I want you to find the next available appointment on a Friday afternoon after 3pm.

Good luck.



Bollocks.

You expect bells and whistles for a measly 20 billion pounds?