Britain?s National Health Service (NHS): Eleven deaths from wrong medications last year, poor management and communications?commonplace
In Britain? Eleven people died in the National Health Service (NHS) in England last year after being given the wrong medication, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said today.
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Mr Hunt said that gaps in information put patients at risk; Hopes to attain a health service ?more ambitious and enlightened? ?Photo: Leomn Neal/AFP
By Laura Donnelly and agencies
Speaking at a conference in London, Mr Hunt said that patients are too often put at risk because information is not properly passed around the healthcare system.
He said that most NHS users would be ?astonished? that their information does not regularly pass between GPs and hospitals and that patient safety could not be improved unless this situation changed.
Mr Hunt said that none of the big challenges facing the NHS can be resolved unless the health service becomes ?more ambitious and enlightened? about sharing information.
Speaking at the Delivering a Paperless NHS conference in London, Mr Hunt said: ?Most NHS users would be astonished that information doesn?t flow around the system. In many hospitals the IT systems aren?t even linked within a hospital, let alone between hospitals and other parts of the health economy. That?s I?m afraid a fairly normal situation across the country. Eleven people died last year in the NHS from being given the wrong medication.?
Mr Hunt said that gaps in information put patients at risk. Improving them was ?a really important part of the compassionate care agenda, the safety agenda, the integration agenda,? he said.
In the speech, he said: ?A few weeks ago I was in the A&E department at Watford and they admitted a lady there with late-stage dementia from a care home. I was completely shocked to see that they knew absolutely nothing about her. She was wasn?t able to speak and she had bruises all over her face but they didn?t know for example whether that was her normal state not to be able to speak or whether that was a result of her fall , they didn?t have her medication, medical history, anything like that.
Mr Hunt also announced that the Government has agreed that patients should be allowed to opt out of a national data base holding their information.
He told the conference that there must be ?proper? safeguards in place to protect patients? personal information.
Mr Hunt said: ?That?s why I have agreed that GPs will not share information about what?s on people?s GP records with the Health and Social Care Information Centre if people object. There will be some overrides but only in situations like a public health emergency or in life or death situations or child abuse.
?Essentially, people will have a veto on that information being shared in the wider system.?
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The lack of communication across the NHS is ?completely shocking?, the Health Secretary said yesterday as he disclosed that 11 people died last year after being given the wrong medication.
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Mr Hunt wants to make the NHS ?paperless? within the next five years?Photo: REUTERS
Highlighting the benefits of sharing data across the health service, Jeremy Hunt said that most NHS users would be ?astonished? that their information does not regularly pass between GPs and hospitals.
Mr Hunt said that none of the big challenges facing the NHS can be resolved unless the health service becomes ?more ambitious and enlightened? about sharing information.
Speaking at the Delivering a Paperless NHS conference in London, Mr Hunt said: ?If you look at the big challenges facing the health service with an ageing society ? things like the A&E departments that I spoke of yesterday, the problem with joined up services, the issues of patient safety and compassionate care that came into the Francis review ? none of those issues are going to be resolved unless we take a much more ambitious and enlightened view as to the power of information.
?Most NHS users would be astonished that information doesn?t flow around the system.
?In many hospitals the IT systems aren?t even linked within a hospital, let alone between hospitals and other parts of the health economy. That?s I?m afraid a fairly normal situation across the country.
?Eleven people died last year in the NHS from being given the wrong medication.
?This is a really important part of the compassionate care agenda, the safety agenda, the integration agenda.?
He added: ?A few weeks ago I was in the A&E department at Watford and they admitted a lady there with late-stage dementia from a care home. I was completely shocked to see that they knew absolutely nothing about her. She was wasn?t able to speak and she had bruises all over her face but they didn?t know for example whether that was her normal state not to be able to speak or whether that was a result of her fall , they didn?t have her medication, medical history, anything like that.
?That simply cannot be in people?s interest to have those gaps in information.?
He added that there must be ?proper? safeguards in place to protect patients? personal information, adding: ?That?s why I have agreed that GPs will not share information about what?s on people?s GP records with the Health and Social Care Information Centre if people object. There will be some overrides but only in situations like a public health emergency or in life or death situations or child abuse.
?Essentially, people will have a veto on that information being shared in the wider system.?
Mr Hunt?s comments followed the publication of Dame Fiona Caldicott?s review into how NHS data is handled.
Dame Fiona highlighted a number of problems about the way information is handled within the health and social care system in England.
Her report says that people?s lack of access to their own records causes ?great frustration?.
She recommended that all letters, emails, and other communications that health and social care teams make regarding a patient?s care should be replicated for the patient.
The report also says that some NHS managers are ?unduly restrictive? with information for fear that their organisation will be fined for breaching data protection laws.
Mr Hunt has previously set out ambitions to make the NHS ?paperless? within the next five years.
He also said that GPs should make patient records available online by 2015.
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