On 11/04/2016 09:27, News wrote:

First and foremost, this is an observation, not a complaint about the
NHS. Long story short, last Friday, my GP arranged for me to attend
hospital fairly urgently, and the visit turned into an overnight stay.
Home now, and doing well. My GP and the NHS probably saved my life, but
that is another story.

They are quite good at that.

Talking to GP, he asked me to call in at surgery for my notes, to hand
to doctor on arrival at hospital, 45 miles away. When I arrived, I had
to give my medical life story, and again at each new ward/doctor. When
leaving, another set of notes were given to me, to hand to my GP this week.

What is going on at the NHS? Surely this should all be electronic in
this day and age?

I asked this question last week, when I had to give the consultant a
synopsis of my partner's eye condition because her notes were at a
different hospital. I was told that there had been delays after the
Information Commissioner decided that patients had to opt in to the
system, rather than be included unless they opted out. Just getting
approvals from all those willing for their records to be put on a
central computer, let alone working out who couldn't be included, was
taking a long time. The current aim, in my local Trust, is to start
computerising records by the end of this year, although, obviously, it
will still take a while to convert all the paper records.

Same health authority, yet it seems that notes taken
in local surgery cannot be accessed by local hospital, and even notes
taken in one hospital ward cannot be accessed by another ward in the
same hospital.

Around here, ward notes are taken on notebooks connected to the hospital
intranet, so that wouldn't happen. However, different hospitals are not
yet linked, so the notes get transferred to paper and filed.

I would expect that, if I had an accident 500 miles from
home, whichever hospital I attended would have immediate access to my
notes going back to birth. Apparently not. OK, perhaps not back to
1952, but at least as far back as the general introduction of computers.
Say 30 years....

AIUI, my GP's surgery has had all my notes on computer for several
years, so, when they eventually get around to centralising notes, it
shouldn't take long to transfer those.

--
Colin Bignell