“The new system of electronic patient records being introduced across England is unreliable and contains inaccuracies that could put lives at risk. A draft report on the Government’s plan to create health records for 50 million people reveals that the national database contains serious errors and omissions.
So far, about 12 million patients in England have been sent leaflets about the new Summary Care Record, and about 1.2 million electronic records have been uploaded. But researchers reviewing the project for the Department of Health are understood to have found examples where the database failed to indicate allergies or adverse reactions to drugs, and listed medication that the patient wasn’t taking. It also indicated false allergies or adverse reactions to drugs, Computer Weekly reports today. Such errors could lead to patients being given inappropriate medication or suffering severe reactions, which in the worse cases can be fatal.”
Article
David Rose, The Times, 19 March 2010
