Things Could Be Marvellous

Categories: uncategorized

Date: 23 March 2007 15:52:52

There are many things in life that I get annoyed at. Some would find it amazing that this would be the case. That means they either haven't read my wiblog or don't really know me ;-)

Today I went to my new doctor's. I'm not ill, well no more than a diabetic can be anyway. I haven't had my medical exam with the nurse yet but needed a new supply of meds. As I haven't been fully inducted, as it were, there were no details about me on the system. Therefore, instead of my usual 2 months worth of meds, I could only have a month's worth.

I can't see the nurse for my welcome check until 13th April at 17:30. Now normally I'd have a fasting blood test done at this exam but it will be too late in the day for that. Luckily we have a small health centre on our estate, thank the Lord for deprived areas in the vallies, so I can make an appointment and get this done here. By the time I see my new doctor in a month's time they should therefore have the results of my blood test.

This all got me to thinking about our current government's failure in the NHS. By now we should have a centralised database that contain all our medical records. These can then be accessed by doctor's and hospitals as required. Therefore we wouldn't need to have "welcome" checks if we changed doctors. Unfortunately this process has been so badly organised and implemented that the programme is 3 years behind schedule at present (with no end in site) and around £6bn over budget.

Why is it that every major government programme is behind schedule and over budget. What's worse is that the government never seem to have a detailed idea of what's actually needed. They prefer to use consultants to set the parameters and avoid talking to those people at the "coal face". Therefore the systems are always developed in occordance with what's best for the consultants.

Take the NHS IT system. This wqas divided between several companies to prevent a monopoly situation emerging. Unfortunately it was now a set of regional monopolies as hospitals and health authorities would only be aloowed to deal with the regional supplier for their area.

In addition most of the suppliers chose a software partner who didn't have a programme built capable of meeting present needs. Alternatively they selected a partner with an exiting product ready to go - except that the software was made for the US and was not consistent with UK health practises. So what's happened?

1 Major software supllier has been forced out.

1 Major software supplier caused a major scandal as they were inflating their earnings to the stock exchange and taking huge personal bonuses. It was then found that they taken the profits on their accounts before actually earning any money.

1 Major IT supplier has completely quit the project.

The government were due to pay on results only. Of course, performance has been so bad that there were almost no earnings to pay. Yet none of the suppliers have said anything about this and not reflected the fact in their accounts. Why? Because the government have been making payments against future performance.

As well as this the officials involved, from civil servants to government officials, have lied to parliament regarding progress and the sums paid out to contractors.

So can we therefore vbelieve anything that this government tells us anymore? Remember how they promised that they govern in a way that was markedly different from the sleaze of the last lot? Remember how things could only get better?