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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?
  • 0
    I must admit I do not have much faith in psychology solving patients mental problem.


    If you are in hospital you are fearful or depressed. No amount of talking is going to solve that problem.  


    Most research in this area (think Facebook) is used to support psychological manipulation of a certain segment of the population.


    Peter Brooks MIET

    Palm Bay Florida USA
  • 0

    Peter Brooks:

    I must admit I do not have much faith in psychology solving patients mental problem.


    If you are in hospital you are fearful or depressed. No amount of talking is going to solve that problem.  




    Slightly unfortunate timing that this post came immediately before UK Mental Health Awareness Week. Peter, that may be your personal view / experience, however I could not disagree more. 


    For anyone experiencing mental health issues, including fear and depression, talking is a vital first step (and potentially the main thing needed). In the UK this is a good first link: https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/your-mental-health/getting-help


    Most of us will have mental health issues, to a greater or lesser extent, throughout our lives. There is a huge range of professional support available to help - if only people will get over the stigma and start using it. 


     

  • 0
    Andy


    Unfortunately within my own family I have seen the effects of mental heath problems with suicide (due to drugs) and deep depression (after being given 6 months to live pronouncement by doctors), but have never found psychologists (who just talk things through) provide any meaningful help. I admit that the use of some medicines do help in some situations.


    Being a senior I am currently interested in medical research relating to dementia, and Alzheimer's and their impact on the mental and physical health of both the patient and their care-givers.


    I am currently attending a series of lectures on "Successful Aging" given by the local Alzheimer's organization.


    I noticed that you failed to mention my comment about psychological research into population "manipulation" that is being used by social organizations like Facebook. 


    Peter Brooks MIET

    Palm Bay Florida USA
  • 0
    In an earlier posting I mentioned about the Medical system in the US having "out reach" medical education lectures.


    I forgot to mention that local Universities (who do medical research) also provide lectures.


     I am planning to attend such a lecture next week with a title "Myths about Psychology and the Brain that even your Therapist Believes" given by a Doctoral Fellow from a University's Technology and Aging Laboratory.


    I have another question about the current NHS system- Have hospitals been forced to implement security systems at the entries to protect staff and patients?


    All our local hospitals employ metal detectors and guards (example G4S) at all entry points including Emergency Departments.


    Peter Brooks MIET

    Palm Bay Florida USA
  • 0
    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..)
  • 0
    Hospitals are high stress and high emotional locations which bring out the worse in people. Currently they are one of the few places in the US where guns (legally licensed) are not allowed.


    Some ER locations are handling multiple gun shot wounds on every shift.


    Peter Brooks MIET

    Palm Bay Florida USA
  • 0
    The UK is a little different,  if you were to rock up at an accident and emergency dept. with a gunshot wound, after initial stabilising treatment you are most likely to be interviewed by police, and may well end up on local TV, or even on the national news, it is very, very rare that a person gets shot, and even rarer for anyone to be killed.

    You may care to look at table 4 of this data on homicides in England and Wales   spreadsheet. Basically death by shooting is way down the risk list, averaging out at about 25 males and 6 females killed per year in the last couple of years. The most common  weapon  is a "sharp instrument" , i.e. stabbings, coming in at ~ 200 males a year and 63 females, followed by death by kicking or hitting. Note that  these are still not really a significant risk for for  a UK population of  ~ 66 million.

    You are vastly more likely to die early from an unfortunate domestic or work related  accident, or if older, some chronic illness, or at any age be run over and killed accidentally by a car (road accidents kill circa 3000 per year, and  ~ ten times that need some time in hospital).

    Data on other sources of death is harder to separate here
  • Former Community Member
    0 Former Community Member
    Back on topic, the NHS now has a new team (NHSX) which supposedly has the task of digital and technology transformation of the NHS - 
    https://www.gov.uk/government/news/nhsx-new-joint-organisation-for-digital-data-and-technology 


    delivering the NHS's technology vision - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-future-of-healthcare-our-vision-for-digital-data-and-technology-in-health-and-care 


    Let's hope they deliver better than the previous IT disasters in the NHS.


    My wife just spent from Thursday morning last week, over the bank holiday weekend and until this afternoon (Wed) on 12hr (9am to 9pm) shifts looking after and comforting/placating her mother in a stressful environment of a 6-bed bay in a hospital ward waiting for investigations into recent post cancer op problems. Little happened with no proper investigations because her notes (manual) were still at the cancer treatment hospital, or somewhere in transit (no-one knew), specialist facilities had closed down for the Bank Holiday, and the duty doctors didn't have sufficient knowledge or confidence to do anything without her medical history until the Consultants came back to work after the break yesterday! Why on earth in this day of instant access to everything on the internet, secure banking, blockchain, etc, etc, can't our NHS have a single 'securely and patient controlled medical records accessible anywhere' IT system with all our medical data on it that any authorised medical person can be provided instant access to?

  • 0
    We have a very strict medical privacy law (HIPPA), that prevents information being dissimulated to the general public (TV news feeds).


    When a patient who has been criminally shot, hit or knifed reached the ER they are given a unique alias. The police are allowed in the hospital but they will not issue any details of the person(s) involved until next of kin are advised and even they may withhold other details of he event.  Sometimes the police are stationed outside the patients door.


    Peter Brooks MIET

    Palm Bay Florida USA




  • 0
    Hello Maurice:


    Having seen first hand IT attempts to install pre-packaged Healthcare software which has been extensively modified to meet local requirements I don't hold out much hope for the NHS.

    If the NHS decides to create their own software from scratch the odds are even worse.


    Having been a care giver for my late son over a period of some 14 years, going to numerous specialist hospitals, I fully understand the frustration of waiting for hospital and other medical records, to be delivered from one place to another.


    Even today they are still using fax machines to transfer paper copies of the information.


    Being an in-patient during a pubic holiday (example Christmas to New Year) no one has "no chance" to get anything done.


    Here doctors go on holiday skiing in the Rockies., without defining a substitute. 


    Sometimes the patients check themselves out of hospital until the holidays are over.


    Peter Brooks MIET

    Palm Bay Florida USA .

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