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.

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? 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. 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.

The thought of all these people in every ward, department and surgery in
the NHS employed to duplicate notes that are already available is
terrifying. I realise that the NHS computer system costs hit the
headlines every now and again, but surely the sharing of information was
solved by every other large company years ago? The NHS is larger, of
course, but we're only talking scale.

It's not just duplicating notes. In November, my wife went in for carpal
tunnel surgery. She arrived on time (very early in the morning), waited
20 minutes and then was taken to a side room. In the side room she was
asked, name, address, date of birth, medical conditions, allergies and
so on. All well and good. However before she got to theatre (about 3-1/2
hours later), she was asked the same set of questions, by different
staff, seven times! What a complete waste of time and money.

When she went back in March to have her other wrist done, they were a
little better, with only three lots of the same questions, no pre-op
assessment appointment beforehand (just a phone call to ask had anything
changed). On the other hand, the organisation was dire. She had to be in
by 07:15, which meant us getting the children up at 06:15 and round to
my parents. I then took the day off work (unpaid) to be ready to collect
her. She was taken to a side room straight away, was given a pre-med at
11:15 and finally was taken to theatre at 15:30. She was ready for pick
up at 17:30. She was apparently number 7 on the list, there were no
emergencies or unforseen delays, so why on earth she had to come in so
early, wait so long, go to theatre when her pre-med had pretty well worn
off and I had to lose a days pay, I cannot fathom.

In a similar vein, I had exploratory surgery a few years ago to
establish the grade and stage of my lymphoma - luckily it turned out to
be a wrong diagnosis and was instead the self-limiting condition,
pulmonary sarcoidosis. I had a pre-op assessment on the Wednesday, was
admitted on Thursday night and had the op on Friday morning. I was told
not to eat anything after 22:30 and to be ready for theatre at 10:30.
For this I had to be at the hospital at 20:00 and stay there overnight.
When I asked why I needed to be there on Thursday night, I was told that
it was the only way to reserve my bed - if I was not there to occupy the
bed, it might be given to someone else and then they'd have no bed for
me and so the op would be cancelled ... what was wrong with a reserved sign?

SteveW