NHS Health systems hit by 110 IT incidents
NHS Hospitals have been hit by more than 110 "major incidents" affecting their information technology systems over the past four months, according to a report in Computer Weekly. They include the data centre crash in July which saw 80 National Health Service trusts lose central services provided by Connecting for Health, the NHS's £12.4bn IT programme, for up to four days. But others have seen digital X-ray systems and patient administration systems go down, with more than 20 of them affecting more than one hospital site.
Connecting for Health said that with the system operating 24 hours a day seven days a week, these amounted to "very small service interruptions". A significant number of those affecting digital picture systems were also due to local issues, not the central system, and items that the programme classifies as "major incidents" could be limited to a patient administration system running slow.
Richard Bacon, a member of the Commons public accounts committee, said the figures were evidence that the programme needed to be rethought.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/ebb00780-477b-11db-83df-0000779e2340.html
Computer Weekely also reported that NHS IT staff "demoralised and undervalued" according to new research from their representative body.
Despite the government investing more in NHS IT than ever before, few IT professionals in the service feel they have benefited from the investment, says Assist, which represents NHS professionals in health informatics, including IT staff.
Its research found that vacancy rates range from 12% for information managers to 4% for senior managers and clinical informatics staff. Staff retention is being affected by low morale - informatics staff feel embattled, overworked and undervalued.
Andrew Haw, chairman of Assist, said, “With tough competition for informatics specialists from all sectors of the economy, the Assist survey highlights the need for urgent action across the NHS on health informatics workforce planning, recruitment and retention, and the establishment of health informatics as a formal profession.”
The research, involving 11 NHS organisations, found the application of Agenda for Change, the new NHS pay scale, had been inconsistent. Assist said there was a case for a recruitment and retention prima.
http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2006/09/15/218507/NHS+IT+staff+%e2%80%98demoralised+and+undervalued%e2%80%99.htm
On June 17, 2006 Health Direct NAO warns on NHS IT systems two years late and £20bn cost climbs noted that the NAO has three key worries for the future strategy of the NPfIT project:
Connecting for Health said that with the system operating 24 hours a day seven days a week, these amounted to "very small service interruptions". A significant number of those affecting digital picture systems were also due to local issues, not the central system, and items that the programme classifies as "major incidents" could be limited to a patient administration system running slow.
Richard Bacon, a member of the Commons public accounts committee, said the figures were evidence that the programme needed to be rethought.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/ebb00780-477b-11db-83df-0000779e2340.html
Computer Weekely also reported that NHS IT staff "demoralised and undervalued" according to new research from their representative body.
Despite the government investing more in NHS IT than ever before, few IT professionals in the service feel they have benefited from the investment, says Assist, which represents NHS professionals in health informatics, including IT staff.
Its research found that vacancy rates range from 12% for information managers to 4% for senior managers and clinical informatics staff. Staff retention is being affected by low morale - informatics staff feel embattled, overworked and undervalued.
Andrew Haw, chairman of Assist, said, “With tough competition for informatics specialists from all sectors of the economy, the Assist survey highlights the need for urgent action across the NHS on health informatics workforce planning, recruitment and retention, and the establishment of health informatics as a formal profession.”
The research, involving 11 NHS organisations, found the application of Agenda for Change, the new NHS pay scale, had been inconsistent. Assist said there was a case for a recruitment and retention prima.
http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2006/09/15/218507/NHS+IT+staff+%e2%80%98demoralised+and+undervalued%e2%80%99.htm
On June 17, 2006 Health Direct NAO warns on NHS IT systems two years late and £20bn cost climbs noted that the NAO has three key worries for the future strategy of the NPfIT project:
- Ensuring that the IT suppliers continue to deliver systems that meet the needs of the NHS,
- Ensuring that NHS organisations can and do fully play their part in implementing the Programme’s systems.
- Winning the support of NHS staff and the public in making the best use of the systems to improve services.
Unfortunately Labour haven't given the NHS the money to train the NHS staff: on June 08, 2006 Health Direct warned that Trusts pay to end NPfIT staff supply contracts in red tape chaos " National Health Service trusts are having to buy themselves out of a commitment to supply staff to companies building the NPfIT electronic patient record system. Trusts in the south are paying Fujitsu £19m after the service found it could not provide 50 NHS employees to help with the programme."
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