SOUTH NORFOLK MP Richard Bacon has asked the National Audit Office (NAO) to investigate reports that a new care records system could be putting patient safety at risk.
Mr Bacon has written to Sir John Bourn, Comptroller and Auditor General and head of the NAO, asking him to examine the use of a new care records system at the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre in Oxford, after the Nuffield was obliged to file a “serious untoward incident” report when the system went live.
Examples of serious untoward incidents include events which have or may have caused death, serious injury, or are life-threatening, or contributed to a pattern of reduced standard of care, or caused serious disruption to services.
Although Nuffield executives say that patient safety has not been affected, internal papers at the Trust identify “major issues of patient safety” such as patients being “lost in the system”.
The patient care records system is part of a controversial national programme for IT in the health service known as Connecting for Health, which – when rolled out nationally – will allow 50 million electronic patient records to be shared across England. The National Audit Office is undertaking a wide-ranging study into Connecting for Health, which is the world’s largest civilian IT programme.
Mr Bacon, a member of the Commons public accounts committee, said:
“Connecting for Health has many of the hallmarks of a classic IT fiasco. It is being foisted on clinicians with no proper consultation and there is over-rapid implementation without proper testing. Now we are seeing reports that it is potentially compromising patient safety. Since the NAO is already undertaking a study of Connecting for Health, it should also examine these incidents at the Nuffield”.
13 March 2006
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