Posts by ReggiePerrin

Health secretary Matt Hancock assembles brains trust: OK, guys. Let's cure NHS IT

Pointless

I rate Goldacre. Brilliant author, if you've not read bad science stick it on your Christmas list. But getting him involved seems more of a PR exercise based on his twitter posts than anything else.

Seriously tho... what the f*ck is this? No real IT experience. Goldacre would probably make a decent chair... i bet he'll ask awkward questions and cut thru the BS. But have any of these people had any experience in running IT services? Anywhere? Let alone in the NHS? Any proper operational experience?

It is 2018 and the NHS is still counting the cost of WannaCry. Carry the 2, + aftermath... um... £92m

Re: £150m deal was signed with Microsoft to update systems to Windows 10

Bob; You really know f*ck all about this dont you? I wouldnt have been suprised if you were involved in the failed National Programme for IT (NPfIT) when a bunch of sales d*cks convinced the government they could create single clinical systems for the entire NHS... that worked out well didnt it and its cost a hell of a lot more than £150m and produced very very little.

£150m would have done nothing. If we just look at all the software out there running medical equipment, re-writing all the software would have meant the equipment itself would have to go thru all the safety checking (i.e.FDA). How much will that cost? How long will that take?

Also how many companies do you think have software actively used in the NHS right now? I've worked in 3 different hospital Trusts... each one had at least 100 different applications actively used. A few were the same, but a shocking number were not. Thats just general hospitals, i haven't worked in primary care (GP land) and never touched mental health. Then there are the ambulance trusts. God and the companies involved, ranging from massive multinations to Jon in his shed (quite literally) who can't seem to understand why we don't really want to be using Access XP based solutions anymore.

Do you also think that all these companies are just going to stop developing there systems and do a complete, from the ground, re-write? Some of these systems have evolved over decades. How long do you think thats going to take? They'll be rubbing their hands at the cost of this... you think its bad with Microsoft now? Times that by thousand greedy Sales execs adding a 500% margin because hell you ain't got no choice have you. You've bought the product, not like anyone else can re-write it.

Then there is the training... there's over a million NHS employees. How much is re-training going to cost? Each one of those will use some sort of IT to a greater or lesser degree. Some of these people go off sick because of stress when you change the desktop wallpaper... let alone change the application and the OS.

You tit.

Medical device vuln allows hackers to falsify patients' vitals

Tip of the ice berg

Tip of the iceberg. Having worked in healthcare IT for over 10 years i doubt if most medical device companies even know what encryption is.

Hospital IT: "What OS is this running then?"

Supplier: "Ermmmm... Windows XP"

Hospital IT: "Really? Christ... what AV is on it?"

Supplier: "None... and you cant install one because that would mean we need to get FDA approval again for this"

H IT: "... did you just type 'admin admin' in that logon screen"

S: "Yeah... don't change it because its the same on them all... our support guys need them to be all the same"

H IT: "... you ever heard of Wannacry?"

S: "Is that a rapper?"

...

Researcher hacks aircraft controls with Android smartphone

Die Hard

They were americans not russians...

Insourced staff paid a pittance but don't want to leave

Outsourcing Strategy

Outsourcing always sounds like a really good idea to begin with. They often are able to undercut an 'in-house' service and give you added benefit of cover for leave / sickness, usually have access to a wider range of skills etc... Big pluses. However in my experieince its when you start making changes to the service is when you get hit and thats where they make the big profit.

Variations = big increase in service cost.

Councils launch eight spying ops on Brits A DAY using RIPA

Re: Hang on a sec

I'd expect its probably something to do with the licence fee?

Disney sitcom says open source is insecure

Jesus christ...

... its a f*cking kids show. Leave it!!!

So, that vast IT disaster you may have caused? Come in, sit down

Re: wow, who the hell . . . . .

in the real world stuff like this does happen... you still stuck in the matrix?

NHS trust spunks £67m on e-patient records, Twitter, Facebook

Re: Managementese

What it actually means is that altho they have said they're going to spend all this money, made loads of promises etc... they actually havent put the money aside yet. Indeed the money might not be there at all. Someones got to justify it now... so expect f*ck all to happen.