There’s one thing currently dominating the chatter of many people the Badger encounters, and that’s the UK Budget on the 30th October. ‘How is it right for me to pay more tax for politicians to fritter away, when the Prime Minister doesn’t buy his own clothes or glasses?’ one pensioner commented. The Badger tries to maintain political neutrality, but there’s little doubt that the new UK government has got off to a bumpy start. However, it’s now starting to flesh out its ‘Change’ agenda and also setting expectations regarding the budget. On the former, for example, the government is calling on the nation to ‘help fix our NHS’. As reported in many places, e.g. here, it wants people to share their experiences and ideas given that we are all users of this huge institution employing more than 1.34 million people. The Badger, having had some exposure to NHS IT during his career and as a patient, has thus contributed to ‘help build a health service fit for the future’ via the government’s website here.
The NHS has been a political football for decades. There’s a regular clamour to give it more money. When it gets additional money, however, it never seems to make an impact, other than to fuel clamour for even more funds – at least that’s how it seems to the Badger. The NHS’s use of modern, integrated, IT is woeful, as neatly illustrated by this New Statesman article in March. By IT, the Badger means the systems that support basic operational processes within and across the NHS’s entities, not the diagnostic and robotic tools that get airtime in the media.
People often tell the Badger of their frustrating NHS experiences, most of which involve aspects where IT plays a part. For example, an NHS phlebotomist bemoaned needing 13 different logon/passwords to deal with blood tests. A relation was appalled on receiving a letter confirming a hospital appointment with Audiology when it should have been with Cardiology! A neighbour was dismayed when a consultant at a post-operative outpatient appointment told them they couldn’t find a CT scan ‘on the system’ even though the scan happened 6 weeks previously at the same hospital. A pensioner, referred from a local hospital for urgent follow-up at a regional hospital, enquired after hearing nothing for 2 months only to be told that ‘there’s no record on our system’ of the referral. The list of similar experiences is long.
Building a ‘health service fit for the future’ is like modernising every aspect of an aging, super-sized, jumbo jet while it’s flying with only one temperamental engine. Few government transformation programmes deliver real change to time and budget, but this one must break the mould, or the jumbo will soon spectacularly crash. That’s why the Badger has not only contributed on the website here, but also urges you to do the same regardless of your political views.
