UK NEWS

COMPUTER FIASCO COSTS HOSPITAL £10M

The Royal Free in London where 40 extra staff had to be taken on

Saturday February 14,2009

By Jo Willey

Comment Speech Bubble Have your say(8)

The boss of an NHS hospital has condemned the Government’s computerised medical records database, saying it has led to fewer patients being seen and cost his trust £10million.

Andrew Way, chief executive of the Royal Free Hospital, in north-west London, said staff were “incredibly disappointed”.

It is the latest row to hit the £20billion IT system which is intended to store the private health records of 50 million patients on a single computer.

Civil liberty campaigners have branded it “data rape” because sensitive information – details of mental illness, abortions, pregnancy, HIV status, drug-taking and alcoholism – will be stored on the care records system.

They say it is open to abuse because the police and other Government agencies will be able to access the records, claiming it is in the “public interest”.

Will Labour ever sort out the mess they have created with the NHS super-computer and the billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money they are pouring into it?

Shadow Health Minister Stephen O’Brien

Yesterday it emerged that pharmacists will be able to read the records, too.

Mr Way, whose hospital began a trial of the system last summer, said the introduction had caused “heartache and hard work” for staff. He said: “I have personally apologised for the decision to implement the system before we were really clear about what we were going to receive. I had been led to believe it would all work.”

He said £4million extra had to be spent to improve the system, with the hiring of 40 extra staff.

And £6million was lost because fewer patients were treated, meaning the Royal Free could not bill other parts of the NHS for work done.

Last night the Shadow Health Minister Stephen O’Brien said: “Will Labour ever sort out the mess they have created with the NHS super-computer and the billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money they are pouring into it?”

The controversy comes after the Commons Public Accounts Committee warned last month of delays to the scheme.

A Department of Health spokesman said lessons had been learnt from the trial at the Royal Free that would help  “improve future deployments”.

JACK STRAW PUSHED THROUGH THE NET THAT THE NHS DATABASE CAN BE ACCESSED BY ANY TOM, D*CK OR HARRY

14.02.09, 5:15pm

Whatever happened to confidentiality between doctor and patient.

In Straw's jackboot autocracy that doesn't count.

• Posted by: ReubenMohawali • Report Comment

COMPUTER FIASCO COSTS HOSPITAL £10M

14.02.09, 5:03pm

Fiasco ? Fiasco ? The Whole Goddam New Labour Incompetence Party is an Utter Fiasco and the Laughing Stock of Europe.

• Posted by: EmperorMing • Report Comment

COMPUTER FIASCO COSTS HOSPITAL £10M

14.02.09, 12:39pm

Who is surprised by this? One thing that Labour loves and that is wasting vast quantities of taxpayers' money hand over fist. Britain desperately needs a change of government.

• Posted by: Mike_JC • Report Comment

NEVER MIND ITS ONLY MONEY!!!

14.02.09, 8:58am

Why the disbelief? why the consternation? its all been done before remember the CSA computer debacle??? and numerous top secret discs that have been left in a wide variety of places including one from the HMRC? and now the NHS computer disaster. Becoming the norm for this government, but dont worry its only money after all we ve all got plenty havent we!!!!

• Posted by: Russell42 • Report Comment

COMPUTERS ?????

14.02.09, 8:32am

ARE really wonderful things, but there is to much reliance on them , anything mechanical ,electrical, can
break down as a few of us have probably experienced

• Posted by: ANNR • Report Comment

DISGRUNTLED: WHO WON WW2? GERMANY HAS THE STRONGEST ECONOMY IN EUROPE

14.02.09, 8:02am

Great Britain has nothing. Just dejected peeps, demoralised by all that is happening around them, and for which they have no answer.

BILLIONS wasted on a glorified database that was defunct before it saw the light of day.

WHY didn't the UK Government use the same blueprint as the Germans did for their NHS database?

That would have been all too simple for the cloth-eared, chinless wonders whom loiter in Whitehall.

• Posted by: ReubenMohawali • Report Comment