David Amess
From Nhs It Info
(Southend West, Conservative - Member, Health Committee)
House of Commons Debate (11 Nov 2004)
"I am informed that we will be given "a demonstration of the Choose and Book software which will enable GPs to make direct referrals to Secondary Care and a demonstration of the NHS Care Records Service which will allow the sharing of consenting patients' records across the NHS". We look forward to that. However, another GP wrote to me saying: "Primary care doctors now feel more like data input clerks than general practitioners, spending much more time than ever inputting information into computer systems in order to reach targets that achieve points that have no proven clinical basis. Doctors striving to reach these unrealistic targets solely to reap the financial rewards that this brings, are compromising good standards of clinical care and 'Points mean prizes' are now the watchwords . . . . The data input requirements that are part of the Quality Outcome Framework mean doctors spend much time staring at their computer screens during what should be 'face-to-face' consultations. There is a general feeling of frustration that the data collection is detrimental to patient care. The public, who are ultimately funding the massive increase in health spending, frequently complain to primary care providers that they are seeing little in the way of improvement and know full well that there are lies, damn lies and statistics and do not believe the figures put out by the Department of Health"."
