Towards The Paperless Society
On the BBC’s News web site today, these are two of their top ten stories; the scrapping of the car tax disc and driving licence records going on-line.
Obviously, these don’t affect me as I don’t have a driving licence or own a car.
But they do show the way that society is going. After all, for many of us, the only contact with our bank or credit card provider is through the Internet.
The one area, where we don’t seem to be going on-line and paperless is healthcare.
The two stories today claim that this paperless route may save us money on car insurance.
So why is healthcare not following the same route?
It doesn’t necessarily mean a loss of privacy and the need to carry a health card, as we do when we travel in Europe, so I’d put it down to a lack of vision of those who run healthcare and the NHS in particular.
The Anonymous Widower 
Two points…paperless working was much the flavour of the month…maybe 30 years ago…I can certainly recall who was the paperless champion in a large company I worked for…and it has to be the mid 1980’s….world has changed quite a bit since then….
Healthcare being paperless…maybe. Its who has access to what should be confidential files…and who has power to change the contents etc…and confidence from the patients. Its supposed to be confidential now…but is it?? Not always….
It will doubtless happen….
Comment by Janet Woodward | January 9, 2014 |
It was the same about paper in ICI in the 1970s.
If we have on-line medical records, then we should be able to access them. At my previous surgery in Suffolk, the nurse and I would often read the records, when she was say giving me an injection. It’s funny what’s in there. and quite a few mistakes too, as my coeliac disease was missed.
Comment by AnonW | January 9, 2014 |