Dear William

I thought your letter was quite superb and the obtuseness of Bruce
Hutchcroft's response a demonstration of the extent of the challenge that we
face.

With very best wishes
Iona

-----Original Message-----
From: William House <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
<[log in to unmask]>
Date: 30 May 2002 19:27
Subject: NHS Information Agency


>There is an opportunity to spread the complexity message to the NHS
>Information Agency - which seems to me to be a bastion of linear
>thinking. The Agency publishes Inform (a 'corporate' newspaper) every 2
>months. The March 02 issue contained an article from a consultant
>physician in Sheffield, Dr Bruce Hutchcroft, entitled 'Why effective
>clinical recording requires major change in clinical practice' in which
>he claims that clinicians need to change the way we work in order to
>support the electronic patient record. I was sufficiently incensed by
>this bizarre conclusion that I wrote a letter to the editor along with a
>plea for a correspondence section - so that the profession might feel
>some sense of ownership. To her credit she published the letter in the
>May 02 issue in a new 'Letter to the Editor'  section, incorporating a
>response from Bruce Hutchcroft - the relevance of which you can judge
>for yourselves! If you don't have paper editions, you can read the
>original article (quite short) and my letter etc (shorter) on line on
>the NHS IA web site - from outside NHS net: www.nhsia.nhs.uk or within
>the NHS net: nww.nhsia.nhs.uk: From the Home Page click on 'Inform' on
>top menu bar - you can then access the March and May issues. If you feel
>moved to write something for the next issue - get typing! My letter is
>mainly about holism but I have put in a plug for complexity to give you
>an opening. Send your letters to: [log in to unmask]  Good luck
>and enjoy the Jubilee weekend! William House
>
>Dr W.House
>St Augustines Practice
>4 Station Rd
>Keynsham
>Bristol BS31 2BN
>Tel 0117 9862343