NHS trust goes 100% over IT budget in patient records rollout cockup

North Bristol NHS trust has confirmed it has overspent on its IT budget by almost 100 per cent in recent months as a consequence of the rollout of its Cerner electronic patient record (EPR) system. The trust has spent £4.5m implementing the Cerner system to date, the majority of which was spent during this January and February …

[Anonymous Coward]

Scientific management

Thank goodness our hospitals are now run by properly trained, highly qualified professional managers and accountants. Just imagine what a mess doctors and nurses would make of them!

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Scientific management

It would be worse if they were let loose.

[Anonymous Coward]

Madness

Doing the highly-critical life-threatening areas first letting them be guinea pigs. Like with new cosmetics, isn't it better to try them on a less sensitive area of skin before getting an allergic reaction all over your face?

[Jonathan Walsh]

I hope Holby City will stay open in spite of this.

[VinceH]

The Lost City of Holby (Head for Atlantis, but turn right at the traffic lights).

I'm confused about where Holby City even is.

Casualty used to be filmed in Bristol, but set in the fictional Holby. As a result, Holby just happened to share a number of landmarks with Bristol, even having its very own Clifton Suspension Bridge. (My, Brunel was busy that week!). Now it's moved to Cardiff, and suddenly all of Holby's familiar landmarks have vanished, to be replaced by others.

Holby City, on the other hand, as far as I know isn't even filmed in Bristol to start with, except exterior shots, which are - or were. If they're still using Bristol, are the two shows not somewhat inconsistent now?

[Blue eyed boy]

The right order of magnitude anyway

give or take a few quid.

[Desk Jockey]

God help me if I ever have to be admitted to these hospitals in an emergency! For those who live in Bristol, they already know that you should refuse to let the ambulance take you to some of the hospitals (particularly the BRI) as due to horrible MRSA infection rates and the like you are going to come out worse than you went in! Throw in dodgy electronic records and your survival rates do not look good.

That BUPA hospital must be doing good business with this lot in charge of NHS care!

[Robert E A Harvey]

Public sector

So, they overspend by 100%.

Who got the sack?

[Oliver Mayes]

Re: Public sector

The accountant who questioned it.

[csaenemy]

Computer says "No"

"By the time the trust's new £430m hospital at Southmead is completed in April 2014, the trust intends that it will be only using electronic patient information."

No, you can't have that life saving emergency operation, the computer's down.

[Anonymous Coward]

Apologies

Said the hospital Manager to the patient 'I'm sorry that we have no beds, I understand that a heart attack is quite serious but... we can offer you a floor walker to take a look at your problem'.'

[Intractable Potsherd]

Re: Apologies

Every time I see "floor-walker" I have a strange combined image of a street-walker and a gecko (not walking on the floor).

[Winkypop]

We can't make you well

But would you mind filling in the "customer experience" survey all the same?

[John A Blackley]

Funny how

Cerner and its main competitor EPIC are used in hundreds of hospitals in other countries, every day, without major incident. Of course where it's used successfully the hospitals also have downtime procedures that they exercise regularly (it is a computer system, after all) and nobody dies when the computer goes down and nobody gets turned away from treatment.

Of couse those hundreds of other hospitals are not part of The Best Healthcare System In The World.