Readers' Letters: New NHS IT system must work in all four countries - if it ever works

A former GP says the IT systems currently in use are complicated, slow and not joined-up (Picture: stock.adobe.com)

I have been reading with interest NHS England’s proposal to develop a new massive NHS IT system This is planned to allow patients to access their health records and for clinical information to be seamlessly transferred between GP practices and between hospitals. This is not a new proposal and has been tried before and failed. The NHS has a terrible record in IT development, with large projects overrunning in development time, cost and often not being fit for purpose or even working at all.

I was until recently a GP in Edinburgh. Our IT systems were ridiculously complicated, slow and not joined-up. When starting work in the morning we had to log on to five or six different systems to get access to patient records, hospital correspondence, laboratory results, secure email and NHS guidelines. We had to use a slow and out-of-date windows system. All had different log-ons and passwords which had to be changed regularly at different times. We were not allowed access to hospital waiting time systems or inpatient clinical records, which which led to us wasting large amounts of time chasing up what was happening to patients and when they might be seen.

GP practices in Scotland used more than one IT system which led to complications transferring records electronically. England had many more, none of which were compatible with ours in Scotland. This made it very difficult or often impossible to transfer records across borders, leading to poorer care and duplication of work.

In Edinburgh, GPs, community nurses health visitors and social work all used different systems none of which communicated. This led to our nurses having to come to our practice to log on to our systems to see what was happening to their patients.

This IT project will probably be one of the biggest undertaken in the UK. It should work in all four countries and needs to start with simplifying the number of different systems doing the same thing. Boards and Trusts should first improve and streamline their own IT systems using nationally agreed programmes which all speak to each other and can be uniformly transferred. Once up and running they could then be integrated into national systems. This project will take years and cost billions. Start locally and improve services. Identify problems and then go national. If not I fear this is doomed to fail again.

Gordon Scott, Edinburgh

Hopes for reform

An interesting article by John McLellan (Scotsman, 22 October) on the need for NHS reform. He mentions Wes Streeting in England, who has said that the moment is ripe for review. However, given this government’s record so far (albeit with a short time in office), are they fit to seize the moment, and not waste the opportunity?

William Ballantine, Bo’ness, West Lothian

Age of maturity

It seems that John Swinney has “significant" concerns over the propsed assisted dying legislation including people as young as 16 and 17 (Sotsman, 22 October). So do I.

This bill is surely intended for adults with a terminal diagnosis, normally those who have a long life behind them. I can see that in a very, very few tragic cases young people may be in a terrible position with an untreatable illness. Yet this once again calls into question what the age of maturity is and should be.

True, 16- and 17-year-olds can marry, but that is all too easily remedied if it does not go well. Yet in Scotland we have cases of youngsters committing crimes being treated leniently because, it is said, their brains do not reach maturity until age 25. The Named Person legislation applied to those under the age of 18, who were deemed to require a responsible adult to supervise them. Yet the notorious Gender Recognition Reform Bill allowed 16- and 17-year-olds with immature brains to declare their ‘gender’ and to undertake life-changing treatment to alter their bodies irrevocably.

Is it not time that we decided on a universal age of maturity, for all purposes?

Jill Stephenson, Edinburgh

Sporting chance

The next Commonwealth Games participants can be sure of taking part if those sports missing out this time in Glasgow are included in the next Games. This can go on ad fininitum to ensure the Games continue.

Martha Dickson, Edinburgh

Historical untruths

I am alarmed at the constant twisting of facts to present people from British history in a bad light. Take Henry Dundas whose statue in St Andrew Square proclaims him to have been personally responsible for “the more than half a million Africans whose enslavement was a consequence of Henry Dundas's actions”, which is an outrageous lie. The enslavement was done by Africans, not by the British. The Royal Navy's West Africa Squadron, operating for almost 60 years, captured around 1,600 ships and freed 150,000 slaves. This Squadron was instituted in 1807 in the midst of a war when Britain was fighting a country (France) whose population was three times ours. Now, Commonwealth nations want reparations from Britain for the enslavement which began in Africa. It was Britain which gave them their freedom and they should remember that.

A couple of years ago, Scottish nationalists were claiming that Churchill sent tanks to Glasgow and killed protestors there in 1919. A total falsehood and swiftly disproved.

Now, a Channel 4 documentary claims that Churchill acceded to America’s colour bar applying to black American soldiers in Britain during the last war. The suggestion is that black US soldiers were prevented from using pubs, cinemas, theatres etc to which white US soldiers and the British public were admitted.

However, it is widely know that Churchill’s government told the American military authorities that, they “must not expect our authorities… to assist them in enforcing a policy of segregation”. We did not have apartheid in Britain and the Americans would just have to accept that.

We must be on our guard and not tolerate our history being misrepresented.

Andrew HN Gray, Edinburgh

Church and state

I agree with Alex Orr (Letters, 22 October) that 26 Anglican Bishops in the House of Lords is an anachronism.

In this 21st century, the Anglican Church represents only one per cent of the UK population. It cannot be right that they have any mandate whatsoever, to participate in the governing and lawmaking of this United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, particularly as it is abundantly clear they represent what has become a relatively insignificant minority in this country.

The Bishops have no place in the in any part of the contemporary political spectrum – other than as private individuals via their local MP.

Justin Welby and his Bishops need to be focusing on the very existence of their church, into the future and to move with the times. Not sitting on their sacred backsides in the Lords.

Doug Morrison, Tenterden, Kent

Doing his bit

Alex Cole-Hamilton is to be applauded for “knocking doors” in Pennsylvania on behalf of Kamala Harris at his own expense (Scotsman, 23 October). For far too many Americans, the very idea of Kamala Harris, a woman of colour, as President, is a step too far, but it’s a step we must hope the American electorate will take.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump continues to turn self-delusion into an art form, claiming that a vote for him is a vote for peace, not least in Gaza, Lebanon, Ukraine and presumably, Sudan. War wouldn’t have happened, he claims, under his watch, as he persists in offering simplistic and very personal solutions to, for ordinary mortals, intractable issues.

Given the events of 6 January 2020, a vote for Donald Trump is certainly not a vote for democracy and not just America, but the whole world, must be waiting with baited breath for the desired result on 5 November.

Ian Petrie, Edinburgh

School strikes

I don’t know the rights or wrongs behind the threatened school strikes across the country.

However for Shona Robison to state that there is no more money for a new pay deal (Scotsman, 22 October), when the Scottish Government has just given £12.5 million to African schools is a scandal.

Of course this is typical of the SNP pretending that they have some sort of influence in the world. Instead of concentrating on all that needs to be done here at home, for example education, NHS, child poverty etc, they would rather throw money away on their pretend embassies and unnecessary trips around around the world.

Cha rles Sinclair, Kirkcaldy

The Great Waste

We are at that time of year again: The Great Waste. First comes the tat of Halloween, then the disturbance of fireworks. Why people should find horror amusing beats me. And that parents should spend hard-earned cash on ghoulish rubbish is equally baffling. I suspect that the modern parent just doesn’t know how to say no.

It’s the same with 5 November. All over the country the night sky will be polluted with noxious chemicals while wild animals and domestic dogs will run and shake in terror. The sky vandals don’t worry about the environment, however. No worries about the cost of living. It’s just another confidence trick where the bottom line is the pursuit of profit.

William Loneskie, Lauder, Scottish Borders

Write to The Scotsman

We welcome your thoughts – NO letters submitted elsewhere, please. Write to [email protected] including name, address and phone number – we won't print full details. Keep letters under 300 words, with no attachments, and avoid ‘Letters to the Editor/Readers’ Letters’ or similar in your subject line – be specific. If referring to an article, include date, page number and heading.