latest bbc health news

Given the mishandling of data by others of late, do we really want the NHS to have an electronic database?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7424770.stm

Some of the system is really clever.

I had to take a friend to hospital – he had fallen over and broken his arm.

He had a digital x-ray taken which was displayed on a super-size monitor within 2 minutes of it being taken- it was just as clear as the old photo-film – they were then able to take another when they had set the break – that’s the good side.
If the system is up and running fully then this information would automatically be available at any other place in the country.
Possibly not very important for a broken arm but if you were found unconscious in an accident the doctors would be able to look up the drugs that had been prescribed to you and within minutes know which should be continued and whether the drugs that they were going to give you were compatible with those you were taking.

All wonderful stuff.

The bad side is the Management and the ‘duty of care’.
Most data lost recently is down to gross incompetence either from individuals and/or their management lap-tops left in cars, CDs posted or sent by ordinary courier firms – the people involved just don’t have or don’t appreciate that they should have a duty of care for the information that they send out and/or receive and or/carry about with them.

We never hear what happens to them either do we?

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