£12bn NHS computer system is scrapped...

[minestrone]

The solution would have been to ask the doctors what they wanted. I gather they resisted this software monolith and Hewitt & co. gravy train from the onset and ended up writing their own crappy Excel based solutions, which then also had to be corrected and maintained by the IT departments. Although it's probably also true that they are more touchy feely than technically inclined.

Most of them were too busy getting new contracts over the first 5 years of the labour goverment to care about anything. Labour (and the country) got totally fecked over by making an arse up of the negotiations. The BMA were hiring out football grounds for the meetings and normally mild mannered doctors in tweed jackets were standing up on seats shouting how they were going to go on strike. They are the most militant workforce in the country just now.

[SueEllen]

Most of them were too busy getting new contracts over the first 5 years of the labour goverment to care about anything. Labour (and the country) got totally fecked over by making an arse up of the negotiations. The BMA were hiring out football grounds for the meetings and normally mild mannered doctors in tweed jackets were standing up on seats shouting how they were going to go on strike. They are the most militant workforce in the country just now.

I think the teachers are more militant as the doctors are happy with their pay even if they don't like the systems they are using.

[lilelvis2000]

The problem as I see it from various viewpoints over the last 8 years lies in the contracts, which are so tied down that clinical and other operatoinal priorities are ignored. Some of these are dynamic and require a more dynamic contractual arrangement, but some of them are blindingly obvious. The silver bullet, IMHO, for hospitals would be electronic prescribing of medication with an electronic drug administration record. The potential benefits in terms of patient safety and other clinical outcomes would be significant, and it would engage clinical staff. It would also pave the way for a patient centred drug record taking into account GP prescription records, pharmacy dispensing records, Mental Health and Community medication records.

There were lots of other relatively simple 'early wins' such as electronic discharge summaries, so that GPs and community teams actually know when a patient has come out of the hospital.

Instead, there has been this insane collection of complex and therefore undeliverable nonsense that deosn't even meet the right priorities.

You do sound like someone on the inside.

This could open up opportunities for a guy like me, who has a EMR solution which is being test deployed in South Africa. Well its worth a shot, but given the addiction to the big five consultancies...it may not happen.