Computerised patient records .

Over the last few years we have heard about the so called NHS Computer system, which allows  the patients medical records to follow the patient.

The idea being, that no matter where you were within the UK, our records could be  accessed by any doctor or consultant in the UK

Millions of pounds were spent on this,  yet it still does not work.

Many people blame the doctors, but I do wonder if the blame lies within the Department of Health,

It is said that the system was a failure from day one,  but like may people I do feel, that it's the Department of Health officials who changed the system so much, that it had no chance of succeeding, or it was done on the cheap

Now we have ended up with a complete shambles.

It's not the first time that I have gone for a hospital appointment to find, that my records were either missing,  or they were not accessible by the consultant who was treating me

I gather that another reason for this problem, is down to the failure of different hospital trusts sharing a patients information with others

This leaves me asking what really happened to our beloved National Health Service, which used to work so well

Obviously those people working on this system care little about the patients  who go to appointments only to find that their records are not there

Not only is this unforgivable, but to me it shows that these officials really don't care about our health service, nor do they care about the stress they cause.

This means that the patient has to repeat themselves at every appointment, and have your carry a list of their medications with them to every hospital appointment, simply because it's not on the system

This came to a head recently when I was sent to see a chest consultant.

We were given the choice if three hospitals where I could see a consultant.

So we chose the first one on the list, thinking that thus would move things on faster.

But when we arrived we found that the consultant could not access my records or the recent chest xrays.

Things have got to such a state now,  that I have had a new appointment to see a different chest consultant at a local hospital, so it will be interesting to see if he can access my records and xrays

I live in hope that things will improve before long