- The NHS is an amazing idea. To be treasured. I explained to my son that if we'd have been in the US we might have had to pay thousands dollars for the investigations, overnight stay and surgical care he'd received, even if we'd been able to claim it back. And that if we weren't insured or well- off who knows what sort of care we'd have received. A pox on the Tory modernisers who don't understand the law of unintended consequences, and a double pox on those who want to privatise the NHS. And their cheerleaders.
- Royal United Hospital Bath is a very good hospital. On a Sunday. At Easter. Checked-in to A&E, dosed up on pain killers, x-rayed, first plaster cast in an hour. Nurse led, doctors at hand. Lots of checklists. Thank you Nurse Conway. I challenge anyone, anywhere, under any payment system, to get a better service.
- Information systems in NHS hospital are curious. The front desk found our home address in another part of the country. But that's all - no access to any existing patient record. Apart from the x-ray record everything was paper based.
- It was interesting to see the nurse fish out her iPhone (thank you Kirsty!) when she needed to do a calculation.
- Most remarkable was the way of moving the patient record created in Bath to Hereford. This is what happened. Most of the notes that had accumulated over the last 24 hours were photocopied (10 pages) and put in an envelope. The first set of x-rays were burnt onto a CD and put in the envelope. But the second set of images, taken in theatre, weren't available so we presume they won't be going to Hereford. A handwritten discharge note was added. The package was given to us to convey to the fracture clinic at Hereford where his care will continue. Does this constitute a Patient Held Record? What about PACS? Couldn't we do with something like a NHS wide IT programme? :-)
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