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Is technology killing the NHS?

Arran Cameron
I'm sorry if this comes across as pessimistic but I believe that the NHS will die unless seriously intelligent reforms are made to it. These reforms will probably not be possible because of inertia in the system. What happened to Stafford Hospital is a snapshot of what will come to other NHS trusts.


When the NHS was established in the 1940s, technology in hospitals was far simpler. In many cases medical procedures were carried out using simple hand tools. The most complicated piece of equipment in a hospital was probably an X-Ray machine. A modern hospital contains tens of thousands of pieces of advanced machinery.


This costs a large amount of money to buy.

This costs a large amount of money to maintain and service.

This costs a large amount of money to provide staff training.


The amount of money spent by hospitals on advanced medical devices and IT equipment keeps increasing year after year and is a substantial part of the NHS budget.


If this isn't bad enough in itself, the NHS is not very good when it comes to using and deploying technology due to its cumbersome and antiquated management structure along with the mentality of a high proportion of its staff. The NHS is clearly not a visionary and progressive organisation.


Only a small fraction of medical devices are specifically designed for the NHS. A high proportion of them are off the shelf products primarily designed for the US healthcare market.


The situation is marginally better with software although NHS IT projects are known to have been expensive disasters.


Therefore, is technology killing the NHS?
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    Peter Brooks:

    Do NHS hospitals have outreach educational lectures on various medical topics?




    Not really for the public although there are some lectures for staff.






    Education of the general population concerning various medical problems (both physical and mental) should be in the charter of any hospital system -- prevention is cheaper than a cure.




    The traditional modus operandi of the NHS has been cure rather than prevention. Remember that the NHS was established in the 1940s when society, medical conditions, and medical technology were very different from today, so the primary purposes of the NHS back in the immediate post war years were different from society in the late 20th century and early 21st century. In more recent times increasing emphasis has been placed on prevention rather than cure (like stop smoking services) but the NHS has struggled to adapt and changes are sometimes seen as violation of its original constitution.


    Mental health and psychology services for children and teenagers are quite poor.

     


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  • 0

    Peter Brooks:

    Do NHS hospitals have outreach educational lectures on various medical topics?




    Not really for the public although there are some lectures for staff.






    Education of the general population concerning various medical problems (both physical and mental) should be in the charter of any hospital system -- prevention is cheaper than a cure.




    The traditional modus operandi of the NHS has been cure rather than prevention. Remember that the NHS was established in the 1940s when society, medical conditions, and medical technology were very different from today, so the primary purposes of the NHS back in the immediate post war years were different from society in the late 20th century and early 21st century. In more recent times increasing emphasis has been placed on prevention rather than cure (like stop smoking services) but the NHS has struggled to adapt and changes are sometimes seen as violation of its original constitution.


    Mental health and psychology services for children and teenagers are quite poor.

     


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