Message text written by INTERNET:[log in to unmask]
>I don't have to convince you of anything.
You do however, or soon will, have to convince the other members of
your PCG,<
Oh, yes you do. You are the one expounding the new technology and
introducing new costs. It may well be that PCGs will not have the cash to
go to the ultimate the IT wallahs desire.
Regarding note-keeping - see an earlier reply of mine to you.
The keeping of electronic notes may be cheaper (is that necessarily better,
too?) but making e-notes is not necessarily so. Does it take the average
GP longer to type than to write? Is the GP spending more time looking at
key-board/monitor than patient? Is patient contact better?
Hospital paper records may be disorganised but how much would it cost to
e-organise them? Who would have access? We are returing to the
confidentiality debate which I believe the ITs have, so far, lost. I
have, of course, primary care as my main interst in this debate.
Staff reading PCs for e-mail appointments are not able to simultaneously
answer phones. Of course, if the patient can control his/her own
appointemnt time then that does not arise but chaos replaces it !
My reaction to your argument is not entirely negative but there are
weaknesses.
David Roberts
Reactionary
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