back to article NHS England told to get a grip on patient records after £6.6m blunder

NHS England has been slammed after more than 700,000 patient records went undelivered. The influential House of Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has said that it is "deeply unimpressed by the lack of grip" the body has on the handling of clinical correspondence, years after it started looking into the issue. The …

  1. This post has been deleted by its author

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "Shared Business Services"

    Why is it when I see those three words in any public sector context, it is ALWAYS associated with gross waste and criminal incompetence?

    There's no rocket science in setting up or running an effective shared services operation (hell, I've been part of the management team of one), but whether it is MoD, MoJ, NHS, DWP, Research Councils etc, the public sector seems to screw the pooch every single time.

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: "Shared Business Services"

        Just not the kind of IQ test that looks at basic spelling and grammar?

      2. triff

        Re: "Shared Business Services"

        I always thought is was those who have been there the longest who get promoted, anybody with any intelligence finds a job somewhere better and so never get promoted.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: "Shared Business Services"

      Because the public sector always outsource it to some cheap useless private sector entity such as Serco, G4S, Capita. If they don't they are attacked for gross waste and criminal incompetence.

      1. Just Another SteveO

        Re: "Shared Business Services"

        Cheap you say.......

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: "Shared Business Services"

          Cheaper than paying public sector staff who still have a faint trace of union support behind them to protect their still diminishing terms and conditions.

    3. Ben1892

      Re: "Shared Business Services"

      So if posting a letter is £9.30 per item, just how big are these letters !

  3. Crisp

    Nice to see senior management blamed

    I'd like to see a prosecution for this kind of mishap. Nothing more than a slap on the wrist, but something that will come up in any CRB check for a job involving other peoples sensitive data.

    1. DJO Silver badge

      Re: Nice to see senior management blamed

      Not sure if a prosecution is necessary but Steria should be legally liable for every single penny spent in fixing this mess and their initial fee should be returned to the NHS.

  4. Pompous Git Silver badge

    The PAC said

    "that NHS England must set out how it can be sure that all unprocessed records have been identified by December 31, as well as detailing how it will ensure correspondence is correctly processed and redirected in future. "

    Presumably they will send themselves a letter...

  5. sanmigueelbeer
    FAIL

    Not getting a break

    NHS sure ain't getting a break, huh?

    They can't get even the simplest of jobs, in this case it's "paper shuffling", right. Why, oh why, does the UK government and taxpayers continue to let them operate?

    1. Intractable Potsherd

      Re: Not getting a break

      Because nothing else would be better, and probably worse?

      1. JEDIDIAH
        Linux

        Re: Not getting a break

        I'm no fan of socialized medicine, but repairing the current leaky ship probably makes a lot more sense than building a new one from scratch.

    2. Raedwald Bretwalda
      Facepalm

      Re: Not getting a break

      "NHS... can't get even the simplest of jobs... right"

      It was not the NHS that failed to deliver the letters. It was an outsourced, private, company. But that fact would not play well into your anti NHS narrative, would it?

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Well ...

    They can just retreive backup copies from their offsite backup facility known as Google DeepMind.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    My partner works as a medical secretary on a zero hours contract. The comments she has made about SOME support staff is amazing. A band 4 employee who asked "What is a hyphen?" Managers who cannot make decisions. Staff that encrypt documents to attach in an email and send the password in the same email. The same password is used over and over again. The staff give their passwords to anybody who asks for it. People log in as other people because they have not been given access to certain applications. It goes on ... ... ... ... ...

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Facepalm

    The NHS accelerated benefits realisation process in action

    A blunder is when someone makes a type, this is outright racketeering. All going to plan, sabatage NHS services and slowly drive it into the ground, then call for it to be sold off to the more efficient private sector. I wonder, how many people are going to move back-and-forward between the NHS and the private medical sector?

    NHS SBS awarded best Shared Service Centre

    "Our ten-year track record of accelerated benefits realisation for the NHS has resulted in the freeing up of £224 million savings 18 months ahead of target"

    By what logic, how does giving money to some French company results in saving money. While at the same time there is a shortage of actual doctors and nurses in the hospitals, sorry that should be 'healthcare organisations'!

    "Technology used by retail giants ranging from Tesco to Argos could now save the NHS millions of pounds, as a result of a new partnership between NHS Shared Business Services (NHS SBS) and British technology company Virtualstock."

    I think I see the strategy, rather than announce the very unpopular privatization of the NHS, contract out the vast majority of functions to the private sector under the guise of joint business services. Then disguise the process in yards of business-waffle. Some further reading:

    The Plot Against the NHS

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