Comments | susannahf: NHS conversations

susannahf

NHS conversations

Jul 09, 2008 13:55

I probably don't post often enough about the stuff I do with the NHS - partly because I don't really want to get flamed for actually being in favour of the electronic records system (albeit with some reservations)[1]. But as part of it, I've come across this Demos publication "The talking cure: why conversation is the future of healthcare". It's ( Read more... )

demos, nhs, healthspace

Comments 4

rjw1 July 9 2008, 13:00:45 UTC

im all in favour of electronic patient records. the fact that you dont have to wait for results/xrays to get physically trasnported is great.

i also agree with patients being able to see thier medical records.

i have actually read mine since at IC they give you your records to give to the nurse when your had nurses apointments.
There are some interesting comments from when i was young.

susannahf July 9 2008, 13:05:41 UTC

I'd love to read my GP notes. Not from my current GP particularly (although it would be interesting), but from the one I had as an undergrad, as I'm 90% sure he wrote down things that were Just Plain Wrong. Hopefully my GP system will allow me to view my records in the next year or so, so I'll probably wait 'till then rather than paying for the privelige now. One of the advantages of being "in the system" is that I know which GP systems are likely to support patient-views of records, either now or in the near future.

pozorvlak July 9 2008, 17:56:40 UTC

I don't really want to get flamed for actually being in favour of the electronic records system

Consider yourself flamed :-)

Seriously, though - electronic medical records are potentially a Good Thing, but I'll need some serious reassurance on the privacy and security side of things.

susannahf July 10 2008, 09:25:04 UTC

I can completely understand that. If (and let's be fair, this is the government, so it's a fairly big if) they stick to the security and privacy rules that I've seen, it should be fine. The main problems that I foresee are the human factor (eg. a dodgy emergency department doctor deliberately pretending that a particular person has attended the ED in order to access their notes for some nefarious purpose), and the government deciding to legislate to override the NHS data ringfence in the interest of "national security". Of course, in the first case, there is a lot of auditing which should pick it up, but no system is perfect... There's little to nothing we can do about the second from a design/implementation point of view ( ... )