BBC medical records story

[Owen Blacker]

Ben Clifford:
> 
> > > The idea of the NHS bureacracy looking after my medical records
> > > is, IMO, a "complete non-starter". But that is how they are looked
> > > after.
> >
> > Centrally-administered records are a non-starter for political or
> > philosophical reasons, while patient-administered records are a
> > non-starter for technical and practical reasons.  There's a slight
> > difference.
> 
> No, centrally-administeed records are a non-starter for practical
> reasons.
> 
> My only medical records that are not lost are:
>    i) my vaccination record
>   ii) a copy of my hayfever prescription
> 
> By sheer co-incidence, those are also exactly the medical records
> that I am in physical possession of.

But, equally, in the last decade, I have had two relatively major
operations, and moved between four (possibly five) health authorities within
the UK some 350 miles apart.  And my GP has the same manilla envelope thing
I'm pretty sure I had 20 years back.

Just because it doesn't always work, doesn't mean it can't.  *GRIN*

That said, I'm inclined to agree that medical records should probably be
centrally held (or on a distrbuted system), rather than replying on me not
losing some token.  Whilst I'm quite good, on the whole, at not losing
things, I should imagine that plenty of people aren't.  And Peter's
comparisons with NZ certainly seem convincing to me...


Owen (who can't PGP sign things on site) x
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