Did an OOH session yesterday - it was as busy as anyone could have expected,
but what made matters interesting was the way in which the county-wide
computer system went down (again).
This meant that instead of pulling all the calls off a screen to be dealt
with electronically the sheets had to be hand-written at base and then faxed
out to each call centre, completed by hand and then faxed back again.
Unsurprisingly the kit was not available to keep pace, and why the fax
machines didn't burn out was anyone's guess. Suffice it to say that people
were hand-delivering call sheets to the centre at the end of the shift
because the fax machine was never in a state to receive incoming calls.
Now I know the systems are going to be so much more robust come the NPfIT
revolution, and I know there are going to be more back-up systems than you
can shake a stick at, and I know we really have nothing to fear when we all
rely on central electronic records.
But it does make you think......
Robert
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