<<<Well, well, the season of good will to all men is definitely over!
As the Marketing Manager for GPASS, I would like to respond to Dr Black's
posting regarding GPASS, as some of the points he makes are incorrect.
First, the PARTNERS initiative. The impression given is that this is
somehow a 'GPASS' initiative and that
GPASS is responsible for delaying the rollout of Registration links. GPASS
is involved in PARTNERS as one GP system supplier, in the same capacity as
Exeter and we are guided by PARTNERS' policy regarding the
piloting/rollout of Registration and IoS links. Policy decisions on these
matters come from the PARTNERS
Project Board.
In any case, given that every practice is being supplied with a comms
server and connection to NHSNet, it would seem eminently sensible to roll
out reg links once the correct infrastructure is in place - ie once the GP
Comms Rollout Project is complete. It is, after all, the reason that these
machines are being provided.The ability of this machine to run New GPASS is
an important, but secondary consideration. It was specified in line with
Scottish Office standards, as is the New GPASS - again, a sensible choice,
given that 80% (and still growing) of practices choose to use GPASS. Some
practices will use this machine for New GPASS, some will not. Others will
be guided by Health Board policy on this matter.
It is interesting to note that most derogatory expressions of opinion on
GPASS are made by people with a vested interest in selling commercial
products. In these circumstances, could we expect anything other than less
than objective or incorrect remarks? Particularly when these opinions are
based on "understanding", "belief" and "heard a whisper". Facts speak for
themselves.
The full, up to date picture, can be gleaned from our Web site -
www.gpass.demon.co.uk - from where you will see that New GPASS has been at
Beta test in five practices since the start of December - all running on
the Scottish Office Communications Server in fact >>
Like Scotland, N Ireland GPs went for GPASS in a big way---partly because
it was free, partly because the commercial companies took a long time to
get around to coming over here.
I bought GPASS in 1992 for three reasons: one, I was short of money; two, I
believed all the promises made by the Scottish GPASS people over the
previous three years (fool!); three, I was able to arrange a demo with only
one other company---VAMP and I found them extremely condescending which
pissed me off no end.
I still have GPASS in the practice, v4.2 (which came out in 1993 I think)
running on a 386 with Wyse terminals. The hardware specified for the
current version of GPASS is beyond our pockets and we shall not be getting
it so we struggle on with a four year old version. I spent a lot of time
and effort working on an alternative to GPASS but that failed so we are
stuck with an old system which does prescribing OK but not much else.
I also was involved with one of the companies which tendered for the "new"
version of GPASS and feel, like many others, that the GPASS developers'
admission that they could no longer hack it came a bit too late--like five
or six years.
I am not convinced by assurances of beta testing----v4.2 was supposedly
tested out in Scotland before we got it but the so-called consultation
module had numerous silly things in it and furthermore was so slow in use
as to be virtually useless in the consultation. I would not accept that
that version was properly tested by any GP with an interest in computing.
GPASS certainly deserves an honourable mention in the annals of GP
computing for allowing a lot of us to dip our toes in the water before
moving on to better systems but the major drawbacks of it in my experience
have been:
1. Old-fashioned approach with no vision at all of the possibilities of GP
computing..
2. Slow cumbersome software written for civil servants.
3. Refusal to accept that any of us might know anything at all about
computers---hence silly stuff like forbidding access to clean-up utilities
(such as Tidy on the old Xenix.)
4. Blanket ban on putting any other software--such as a WP package---on the
same machine as GPASS.
GIven that my practice is stuck now with GPASS and that I am not selling
anything else I think that my criticisms cannot be easily dismissed.
Declan
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