Tag: "NHS"

Health IT Spending Is Not Working in Britain

The National Programme for IT in the National Health Service was launched in 2002 with a 2010 goal of providing every NHS patient with his very own electronic medical record. Yet in its most recent report, the British National Audit Office states that the Department of Health there has been a:

steady reduction in value delivered not matched by a reduction in costs. On this basis we conclude that the £2.7 billion spent on care records systems so far does not represent value for money, and we do not find grounds for confidence that the remaining planned spend of £4.3 billion will be different.

As in the U.S., the system was sold with claims that it would improve services and the quality of care. In fact, many of the proposed applications, like internet appointment scheduling, electronic prescribing, computerized order entry in hospitals, and a secure organizational broadband communications network are already in use, without government subsidy, in the U.S.

Jul 20, 2011 | 8 comments | by

Price Controls Create Drug Shortages in Britain

In February, the Financial Times reported that, Britain’s Royal Surrey Hospital made £300,000 in profits last year by buying £4,600,000 of prescription drugs at prices arranged by the British government [gated, but registration is free] and then exporting them to foreign buyers. European Union laws make this practice perfectly legal, and the recent weakness of the pound against the Euro means that a drug sold at negotiated prices in England can fetch much more in Germany.

One in 10 UK pharmacies is arbitraging drugs and by May an estimated £40 million in drugs destined for the NHS were being diverted every month. Because manufacturers allocate supplies according to the price paid, shortages have developed in the treatment of cancer, high blood pressure, epilepsy, asthma, osteoporosis, and high cholesterol — despite official promises that “patients must come before profits.”

May 26, 2010 | 6 comments | by

Worrisome Lessons from Britain

Paying for private consultation has cost Jenny Whitehead her place on the National Health Service (NHS) surgical waiting list. A NHS spokesman said that “Anyone who chooses to pay for a private outpatient consultation cannot receive NHS treatment unless they are then referred on to an NHS pathway by their consultant.”

In 2008, the NHS tried to deny all care to cancer patients who paid for drugs not offered by the health service. The government said that it had ordered the NHS to stop withdrawing care from people who paid privately for unobtainable drugs or treatments.

Apr 22, 2010 | 5 comments | by

Why Not Drink from the Keg?

The National Health Service (NHS) considers the traditional, pint-sized beer mugs favored by English pubs, a health hazard. The NHS identified about 87,000 violent incidents each year, where drunken patrons smash a glass mug against another patron’s head or break a beer glass to use the jagged edges as a weapon in a pub brawl. The NHS’s cost to treat bar-related beer glass injuries: $4.3 billion per year. The NHS’s solution: safety glass beer mugs made with glass similar to how auto safety glass is made for windshields.

Mar 04, 2010 | 6 comments | by

What Does a Patient Experience Manager Do?

If you think American administrative costs are high, consider this. NHS Blog Doctor has an informative post on the kinds of jobs that proliferate in the British National Health Service (NHS). There are Equality & Diversity Managers, Patient Experience Managers, and Spiritual & Pastoral Care Managers, all of whom earn “higher salaries than, for example, junior hospital doctors and experienced ward nurses.”

The job description for a Patient Experience Manager? “Work with the Head of Patient Services to embed patient experience metrics as an integral part of performance management across the Trust.”

The same job ad asks “Are you passionate about improving the experience of all our patients and carers? The Trust must put the patient and their [sic] carers at the centre of all we do.”

Does the NHS exist for the benefit of those that they are supposed to serve or the benefit of those that they employ? Judging from this job ad, at least one NHS hospital cannot make up its mind on that point.

Feb 23, 2010 | 4 comments | by

Does the U.S. Health Care System Provide a Model for Hospital Use?

Because of the pressure on capacity and concern about bed blocking, particularly by elderly patients, interest in the use of intermediate care facilities (such as hospices and nursing homes) has grown. The health system in the United States provides an alternative model for the coordinated use of hospital beds and intermediate care facilities.

Yes, you read it correctly. The U.S. may be a model of coordinated care.

This quote is from a short paper on differences between discharge destinations and lengths of stay in U.S. and English hospitals for people aged 65 or over. It was published in the March 13, 2004 issue of the British Medical Journal. It found that average lengths of stay in NHS hospitals were more than double the average in U.S. hospitals, 6.7 days for stroke in the U.S. versus 26.9 days for stroke in England. Thirty-nine percent of U.S. patients were discharged to some form of intermediate care compared with 10% in England, and in-hospital death rates were 4.9 percent in the U.S. compared with 9.3% in England.

Feb 18, 2010 | 8 comments | by

Rationing by Waiting

Poetry in the Waiting Room was the brainchild of a poet who discovered many of his friends were spending lots of time in NHS waiting rooms. It’s funded by the British Arts Council and the NHS and aims, according to a brochure, “to comfort those waiting to see the doctor through poetry.” An informational footnote declared that the pamphlets were described “in a House of Lords debate as the most widely read national poetry publication.”

This is from an article praising British health care vis-à-vis U.S. health care. It appears in Kaiser Health News. No reference to all the premature deaths in Britain due to substandard cancer care.

Feb 02, 2010 | 7 comments | by

NHS Electronic Patient Records System May be on the Chopping Block

Britain’s National Health Service has spent billions of pounds to create the first national electronic patient health records system. The TimesOnline is now reporting that the system may be scrapped because it is “not essential for the front line” and the government “underestimated the challenges involved in the project.” The program is reputed to be the largest non-military IT project in the world.

Since U.S. politicians apparently cannot learn from history, it appears that the electronic patient record sections of the House and Senate health care bills are doomed to repeat it, at great cost and expense.

Dec 10, 2009 | 3 comments | by

Hits & Misses – 2009/10/20

In 2009, about 40% of individual income taxes will go toward debt interest payments.

Australia: No TV for kids under two.

A growing number of affluent Americans are turning to their financial advisers for guidance navigating the Medicare maze.

Up to one in 50 hospital patients in Britain’s National Health Service shows problems caused by prior NHS care.

Oct 20, 2009 | 2 comments | by

More on the “Envy of the World”

Cruel and neglectful care of one million British National Health Service (NHS) patients exposed.

Prisoners have a better diet than Health Service hospital patients.

Patients forced to live in agony after NHS refuses to pay for painkilling injections.

Baby was too premature: NHS refused to care for it.

Sep 10, 2009 | 4 comments | by
Next Page »