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Lack of integrated computer systems within NHS

Posted By Poff

"Lack of integrated computer systems within NHS"

About: Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust - Queen's Medical Centre Campus Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust / Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services – Inpatient

(as a parent/guardian),

Currently there is no computer system for administration in Nottingham NHS CAMHS despite there being a computer department. The systems and programming department should be meeting with staff to develop a system.

I used to be a computer programmer and database administrator so I know how these things work. The system they use in CAMHS is totally separate from the the system used by Queens Medical Hospital, so they cannot find out about inpatients general medical history but have to wait for things to come in the post and as a result mistakes are made.

It would be very easy to develop a system which could interrogate the QMC system for inpatients medical history. Obviously only certain people would be authorized to do this. Another job for the Computer department. Although there would be an initial cost to this systems, the saving in the long term would be huge.

The Maudsley CAMHS unit in South London seem to be much more on the ball with IT. When I received an assessment on my son, I received a link by email and a password which took me into their system, so the appraisal was received in a matter of days and I was then able to forward it to the relevant people. I also scanned in my sons cardiac reading.

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Responses

Response from Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust 8 years ago
Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust

Submitted on 17/08/2015 at 13:36
Published on Care Opinion at 13:53

Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this matter. We are sure our colleagues at Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust, who provide CAMHS in Nottingham, will respond themselves to your message.

Improving overall care and ensuring more joined up care is important, and in England some Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) have started to integrate patients’ health records at a local level.

This is called Integrated Digital records and is an ongoing process across the NHS.

Response from Involvement & Experience Officer, Involvement, Experience and Volunteering Team, Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust 8 years ago
Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust

Submitted on 21/08/2015 at 11:50
Published on Care Opinion at 16:46

Thank you for taking the time to post on Patient Opinion. It is not accurate to say that there is no computer system for administration in Nottingham NHS CAMHS as there are actually two systems. For Level 1 and 2 CAMHS we use TPP’s SystmOne. For Level 3 and 4 we use the RiO system. Currently the data sharing protocols in the NHS do not permit the users of one trust’s computer systems to access another trust’s systems, as without the patient’s consent, this would be a breach of the Data Protection Act.

We are however, working with colleagues in the county on a possible solution. This would be a clinicians portal. A bid has been submitted to the Vanguard programme to seek funding to construct and implement the portal.

It is also fair to say that the South London and Maudsley Trust are the most advanced mental health trust in their use of IT, particularly in enabling communication with patients. We would say that they are about 4 years ahead of us. They do have access to substantial charitable and other discretionary funds that we do not. We are proposing to collaborate with them in the use of data to support research, through which we hope to narrow the gap between them and us.

I hope this helps to keep you informed

Andrew Haw

Head of Health Informatics

Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

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