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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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    Generally, nothing more complex than the odd security fella on patrol within rapid reach of reception areas, and even less at small clinics and local market town surgeries where the main security feature is probably the receptionist's desk and an outer door to buzz though. There are a  few city centres  and a some specific establishments with local problems that have to be a bit more serious about it.


    There are also rather more reported incidents of abuse of staff and disruptive visitors being removed than there were in times past, but certainly not at the level of needing airport-like  security everywhere, though perhaps it is needed  in some of the most troubled places.


    Do please realise that the NHS is not really monolithic, but is more like lots of islands of regional trusts, and common practice in one area may be very rare in another, not so much for the medical stuff as that is centrally regulated, but a lot of the back office and support level stuff is organised  (quite differently ) trust by trust. (my wife used to work for one, and there are some very funny stories..)
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    Generally, nothing more complex than the odd security fella on patrol within rapid reach of reception areas, and even less at small clinics and local market town surgeries where the main security feature is probably the receptionist's desk and an outer door to buzz though. There are a  few city centres  and a some specific establishments with local problems that have to be a bit more serious about it.


    There are also rather more reported incidents of abuse of staff and disruptive visitors being removed than there were in times past, but certainly not at the level of needing airport-like  security everywhere, though perhaps it is needed  in some of the most troubled places.


    Do please realise that the NHS is not really monolithic, but is more like lots of islands of regional trusts, and common practice in one area may be very rare in another, not so much for the medical stuff as that is centrally regulated, but a lot of the back office and support level stuff is organised  (quite differently ) trust by trust. (my wife used to work for one, and there are some very funny stories..)
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