The head of a patient group at the first NHS trust in
London to go live with the BT-suppliedCernerpatient administration systems
as part of the national IT scheme, has warned that trusts will
receive complaints from patients when they go live with similar
technology.
Alex Nunes, chair of the Patient and Public Involvement Forum
for Barnet and Chase Farm Hospitals NHS Trust, said there had been
"disturbing" incidents after the trust went live with new systems
under the
NHS National Programme for IT (NPfIT).
"Whoever's fault it is, it is the patients who are suffering,"
he said. "A lot of trusts are going to get stick from their
patients. I should have thought that those responsible would have
the capability of delivering what was required and making sure that
it did the job intended."
Nunes said that the hospital had sent letters to some people
asking them to come in for operations when they did not know
anything was wrong, and others who were expecting to be invited for
appointments did not receive letters.
Nunes said he did not blame the trust for the difficulties, and
he fully supported the NPfIT, which he said was a courageous plan
that could lead to a "tremendous improvement" in the care and
treatment of patients.
But he warned that with troubled implementations "there is a
danger of taking one step forwards and two steps backwards".
Barnet and Chase Farm Hospitals went live in July with the R0
release of software from US healthcare specialist Cerner. It was
the first implementation by BT in London of Cerner's Millennium
system under the NPfIT.
Diabetes patient, Fred Ciccone, told his local newspaper he felt
like a ghost after staff were unable to access his medical records
on a visit to Edgware Community Hospital.
Remon Gazal, then director of IT at the trust, did not underplay
the difficulties for some patients. He said that there have been
some significant improvements as a result of the go-live, and
workarounds have been developed for defects that have an
operational impact.
The trust's suppliers had made no comment as Computer Weekly
went to press.