back to article NHS contracts for document storage, digitisation three years after paperless deadline

The NHS has awarded 17 suppliers a seat on a public sector framework worth up to £200m for paper document storage and digitisation, three years after it missed a self-imposed deadline of going paperless. According to a contract award notice published today, NHS Shared Business Services – a joint venture between the health …

  1. John Robson Silver badge

    Point of care

    I'm torn...

    Paper charts are an excellent locally accessible, resilient form of note storage at point of care in hospitals. We wouldn't want to suddenly have no notes due to a ransomware attack.

    On the other hand digital notes there would probably have meant that I was given steroids when they were prescribed, and my hearing would very likely be significantly less damaged than after the ~ 1 week delay that happened. Telling a barely functioning patient what you are prescribing them is not a route to have that information relayed to the ward.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Put it to scale..

    Our trust is smaller than average, has been scanning in new documents for a while or only generating them electronically.

    We still have 160KM of shelving with patient information on them. That does not include your GP record.

    Now scale that across the country.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Put it to scale..

      Back in 1990-something I worked on an offer for my employer proposing to digitise hospitals' x-ray films.

      One of the benefits in the cost model was that most hospitals would free up the equivalent of a small building.

      1. Peter2 Silver badge

        Re: Put it to scale..

        I worked in NHS IM&T a decade back. At that point, everything had switched to digital X-ray machines.

        IIRC The downside of this was that the software for the multi million quid x-ray machine only ran on XP and the manufacturer had no plans to migrate the software off of it despite the extended support ending something like a year or two later.

        1. John 110

          Re: Put it to scale..

          Been there done that.

          Also: digital x-rays took up a more than significant amount of bandwidth on the link between Dundee and Perth, so much that us IT guys knew to say that it was Radiology's fault whenever we had complaint about the slow network...

  3. gandalfcn Silver badge

    The importatn bits to note are

    " first set by then-health secretary Jeremy Hunt back in 2013."

    "postponed to 2020 following a report by Professor Robert Wachter and the National Advisory Group on Health Information Technology."

    ""Shifting priorities and slipping timescales pose a risk to credibility and commitment on the ground," "

    "It also called for "clarification about when funding already announced will be available and how this can be accessed"."

    " the NHS research body also pointed out that Hunt's target was preceded by plans under the ill-fated National Programme for IT, which dates back to 2002 and "failed to achieve its main objectives"

    So shouldn't the headline be "Tory Twits contract for document storage, digitisation three years after Tory Twits mandated an idiotic paperless deadline"

  4. Jim Whitaker
    FAIL

    What could possibly go wrong.

  5. codejunky Silver badge

    Ha

    "three years after it missed a self-imposed deadline of going paperless."

    Brought by the stunning healthcare service that still uses fax. At some point the religious defence of the NHS will fail and the administrative bureaucracy will be split from the actual health providers when discussing the institution.

    1. gandalfcn Silver badge

      Re: Ha

      Correction

      "three years after it missed a self-imposed deadline of going paperless." Brought by the stunningly incompetent then-health secretary Jeremy Hunt.

      "postponed to 2020 following a report by Professor Robert Wachter and the National Advisory Group on Health Information Technology."

      1. codejunky Silver badge

        Re: Ha

        @gandalfcn

        "Brought by the stunningly incompetent then-health secretary Jeremy Hunt."

        And how many decades has he been in charge of the NHS? Do you believe the health secretaries actually go and develop the required systems personally?

        As I said at some point 'the administrative bureaucracy will be split from the actual health providers when discussing the institution'.

        1. gandalfcn Silver badge

          Re: Ha

          Bless, Why not stick to the topic rather than going elsewhere?

    2. codejunky Silver badge

      Re: Ha

      Just to further the difference between the doctors and nurses vs the monolith behind it the NHS has been overpaying considerably for an easily available medication for almost a decade-

      https://www.expunct.com/business/hydrocortisone-the-nhs-as-idiot-shopper/

      A pack of hydrocortisone worth 70p being charged at £88. We might clap for some but hopefully not for others.

  6. gandalfcn Silver badge

    A somewhat unbalanced piece, and that is being kind. Especially when dealing with a bigoted "Kipper.

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