Imagine if every branch of Waitrose or Tesco could choose its own IT systems. That is effectively what we have in the NHS with hospitals and Integrated Care Boards selecting the systems they use locally. This leads to numerous problems in trying to deliver health services. - ThreadSky

azeem-majeed.bsky.social • 81 days ago

Imagine if every branch of Waitrose or Tesco could choose its own IT systems. That is effectively what we have in the NHS with hospitals and Integrated Care Boards selecting the systems they use locally. This leads to numerous problems in trying to deliver health services.

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markouthwaite.bsky.social•81 days ago

And if most of those systems were likely to be obsolete US origin dinosaurs by the time they are ‘fully’ implemented (8 years plus). And few would be ‘fully’ implemented.

jmcthornton.bsky.social•81 days ago

There is no single IT system that can do everything. Trusts have wildly different requirements. If you specify strict compatibility in the tendering, you'll pay unbelievable sums for a system which won't work before it's obsolete. Better to employ staff who can make systems talk to each other.

azeem-majeed.bsky.social•81 days ago

There is still scope to reduce the total number of IT systems the NHS uses (which I appreciate is an ongoing process).

jmcthornton.bsky.social•81 days ago

Too many systems also result in too much time spent training to use them, so minimising change is no bad thing. I worry that having a truly unified system would be nationally catastrophic should there be a hack or ransom attack, which would surely happen eventually.

toddzbox.bsky.social•81 days ago

There's one happening currently in Liverpool at, I think at two hospitals only.

larsnielsen.bsky.social•81 days ago

"Trusts have wildly different requirements"

Surely that's a problem. If Trusts have wildly different requirements, that's indicative of the "postcode lottery" in healthcare which we all know exists.

jmcthornton.bsky.social•81 days ago

Not at all. There's a huge difference in requirement between a teaching hospital and a specialist cancer hospital, for example. Different treatment pathways, different diagnostics, imaging, single visit or many repeat appointments....One size really doesn't fit all. Not a postcode issue.

richardblogger.bsky.social•81 days ago

Neurologist tells me "I gave no idea on this new clinical system where your blood tests are" I get out my phone and give him access to my NHS App test results...

azeem-majeed.bsky.social•81 days ago

Having different IT systems across the NHS makes it more difficult to give clinicians the ability to view and edit medical records, and to provide integrated care. It also means that staff who move to a different employer often have to learn how to use new IT systems.

azeem-majeed.bsky.social•81 days ago

Using data for secondary purposes such as needs assessment, health care planning, quality improvement and research is also made more difficult. If the government want to improve NHS efficiency, one area they need to look at is to rationalise the IT systems used in the NHS.

policyskeptic.bsky.social•81 days ago

Also, NHSE seem to have decided to make access to already standardised national data, fragmented. By devolving it to regional SDEs instead of a single national body. This is a nightmare for research on hospital activity.

kentindell.bsky.social•81 days ago

But that nice Me Blair spent £6.9bn on a new IT system!

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