- NHS doctors lose 13.5M hours due to computer issues yearly
- Concerns rise over obsolete IT systems endangering patient care
- BMA study highlights NHS digital infrastructure challenges
NHS physicians waste 13.5 million hours annually rebooting computers and staring at loading displays. This is equivalent to employing 8,000 full-time medics for £1 billion.
Physicians are concerned that deteriorating IT systems in hospitals and GP offices endanger lives, making access to medication and treatment records difficult or unattainable.
Delays caused by obsolete machines processing scans and test data may also result in lost opportunities for early treatment.
The information was exposed in a study by the British Medical Association (BMA), which examined the evolution of different digital record-keeping and data-processing systems.
Both inadequate government funding and the NHS’s weak budgeting practices have been attributed to the crisis. Health Secretary Victoria Atkins pledged that a new £3.4 billion investment will be concentrated on “front-line” computers. She added, “Each year, physicians waste 13.5 million hours waiting for a loading screen to complete or restarting a computer that has crashed.”
“Our investment in productivity will ensure that this changes… so [physicians] can return to their primary responsibility of providing patient care.”
The BMA discovered, through an examination of NHS computer systems and a survey of physicians in hospitals and GP offices, that each time a physician sees a patient, they must frequently enter into multiple systems and that numerous medics are required to share a single computer on a ward.
Certain hospitals and health centres have wi-fi, which is so sluggish that CT scan images frequently cannot be loaded on computers.
According to one physician surveyed by the BMA, they were compelled to utilise an unsecured public wi-fi network or mobile phone data instead of alternative options. Another individual explained that a corresponding rise in their number had not accompanied the increased dependence on computers in wards. They further stated, “We must wait five minutes for a computer to become available, visit the patient, and then locate another computer for the subsequent one, even though we are required to use one for each patient during a ward round.”
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Eleven per cent of physicians reported having the necessary instruments to perform their duties effectively, and many said crashes, bugs, and glitches cause daily work delays. According to Dr David Wrigley of the BMA, insufficient funding is the root cause of the issue. He further stated, “The Chancellor’s emphasis on the digital transformation of the NHS in the recent Budget was appropriate; however, action is required to follow rhetoric.”
Vice-chair of external affairs for the Royal College of GPs, Dr Victoria Tzortziou Brown, stated that physicians rely on computers to access patients’ medical records, write prescriptions, and receive critical “red flag” alerts regarding drugs. She said, “Our members frequently use obsolete systems that frequently crash.”
According to an NHS England representative, major IT upgrades are underway, and three-quarters of adults now utilise the NHS app for scheduling appointments, obtaining health advice, and reordering prescriptions.
“We are well aware that there is much more work to be done,” the spokesperson continued. “That is why the recent £3.4 billion investment to upgrade digital infrastructure is crucial.”
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