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NHS doctors waste a staggering 13.5 million hours a year rebooting computers and staring at loading screens – the equivalent of 8,000 full-time doctors costing £1 billion, the Daily Mail can reveal.
Doctors fear that crumbling IT systems in hospitals and GP surgeries are putting lives at risk by making it difficult or impossible to access medication and treatment records.
And delays as a result of archaic machines processing scans and test data mean early treatment opportunities can be missed.
The data came to light in a study by the British Medical Association (BMA), which highlighted how various digital record-keeping and data processing systems have developed over the years.
Inadequate government funding and poor NHS budgeting have been blamed for the crisis. Writing in the Mail today, Health Secretary Victoria Atkins promised that a new £3.4bn investment will focus on “frontline” computers, adding: “£13.5m is wasted every year of hours while doctors stare at a slow loading screen or reboot a crashed computer.
A National Health Service hospital. NHS doctors waste a staggering 13.5 million hours a year restarting computers and staring at loading screens (file image)
Victoria Atkins, Secretary of Health. Atkins promised new £3.4bn investment will focus on ‘top of the line’ computers
“Our investment in productivity will ensure those changes… so (doctors) can get back to what they do best: treating their patients.”
Based on a study of NHS IT systems and a survey of doctors in hospitals and GP surgeries, the BMA found that doctors have to log into several different systems every time they see a patient and often several doctors must share a single computer in a room. .
Wi-Fi in some hospitals and health centers is so slow that computers often cannot load CT scan images.
One doctor interviewed by the BMA said he had been forced to use an unsecured public Wi-Fi network or even his own mobile phone data. Another explained that the greater reliance on computers on wards had not been reflected in an increase in them, adding: “Despite having to use a computer for each patient on a ward round, we have to wait for a available”. five times to multiple software systems, see the patient, and then find another computer for the next one.
Only 11 percent of doctors said they had the equipment needed to do their job correctly, and many said glitches, glitches and errors delay their work every day. Dr David Wrigley of the BMA said the problem is due to inadequate funding, adding: “The Chancellor was right to focus on the digital transformation of the NHS in the recent budget, but we need action, not just words.”
A spokesperson for NHS England said major IT upgrades were underway and three quarters of adults now use the NHS app to access health advice, request repeat prescriptions and book appointments (file image)
Dr Victoria Tzortziou Brown, vice-president of external affairs at the Royal College of GPs, said doctors rely on computers to access patients’ medical records, issue prescriptions and receive important “red flag” alerts about medicines, and He added: ‘Too often, our members work with outdated systems that often fail.’
A spokesperson for NHS England said major IT upgrades were underway and three quarters of adults now use the NHS app to access health advice, order repeat prescriptions and book appointments.
The spokesperson added: “We know there is much more work to do, which is why the recent £3.4bn investment to improve digital infrastructure is so important.”