Having something wrong with you and visiting the hospital is never fun but it is
not so bad if you feel there is support there.

I had a bit of a health scare recently ­ nothing serious ­ but it brought home to me the woeful state of patient records. Integrated patient care this was not.

Despite the need for a hospital visit, I had been in reasonable spirits: after all, I was heading to one of the country’s leading hospitals. After eight fruitless hours in A&E, where the weekend doctors were unable to help, my mood darkened.

Still, I booked a follow-up appointment, received my appointment card and spoke to a friendly nurse, who wanted to confirm I would be keeping the appointment on Monday morning.

That was the high point of my experience. When I turned up for the appointment, no one at the front desk had any idea who I was and perhaps even worse ­ no knowledge of the doctor who had booked me in for the follow-up.

The extent of the chaos became truly apparent when I finally managed to meet my new doctor. Although she had printed out my records, which included the details of my other visits, the doctor clearly had some serious misgivings about the quality of patient information that they contained.

The lack of a central patient records system was a recipe for disaster, she suggested. Her advice? Keep your own records and bring them with you, so that the medics stand a chance of having the necessary information.

Little did I realise how glad of that advice I would be. On subsequent visits to the hospital I was told that I needed a scan that I was able to prove I had already had in a different department, and I was given a prescription with instructions that did not match the medication the pharmacy had provided. I also waited 45 minutes for the pharmacy to open because the hospital’s web site provided visitors with the wrong opening times.

Afterwards, I received an email from the hospital’s head of communications.
“Unfortunately, the information on the web site is incorrect and this has been confounded by switchboard also giving you the wrong information, for which I can only apologise,” she said.

The wrong dosage amount might not have been an electronic fault but the pharmacy did tell me that it, like the rest of the hospital, was running on the new Cerner software that BT has installed.

This software is supposed to form the basis of a nationally accessible patient record system, the Integrated Care Records Service, also known as the NHS Spine.
The Spine itself is the system clinicians will use to securely gather information about their patients at the point of care ­ ensuring they have the necessary details regardless of whether the patient is in a GP surgery, acute hospital or walk-in centre.

There has been no shortage of reports detailing the problems in building an integrated care record, but until then, I had not experienced the problems firsthand.
And although the hospital is well aware of the glitches in the system and is believed to be taking legal advice, those involved in the project still assure the public that the development of the Cerner Millennium Care Records Service is well in hand.

I remain unconvinced. From my visit, I never would have guessed the hospital in question is apparently leading the way in establishing electronic record systems for patients. And regardless of whether the fault lies with the hospital or those building the Spine, it is clear that staff have lost faith in the ability of the system to provide them with information. That is a fairly damning indictment and raises serious questions about the future of the project.