Two and a half weeks into my new role now, and unfortunately have spent quite some time in the past few days in Kingston Hospital as my partner has required some treatment.
At one point, when yet another paper form was being filled in by one of the extremely helpful nurses, she commented that (given both my partner and I work in IT) we must be surprised at all the paperwork to be filled in.
Giving it some thought, I guess that I was. And I also guess that I am somewhat relieved. It strikes me that the NHS (in a very large way) has a challenge that my new company also faces (in an extremely much smaller way) – that of a large number of rotating contracted staff.
For the NHS, this means that there are locum doctors and agency nurses providing key services throughout the health service. The issue this causes? Well, if you have ever tried to develop an IT security model for an application, you'll know that it is challenging. With highly sensitive data (like medical records) it becomes what is technically (and medically) known as a ball ache. And throw into the mix a fluid (and extremely large) workforce who all need access, and you end up with a system that is going to be inherently insecure… most security issues are related not to “clever” hackers, but to people (often with access rights) doing something that they shouldn't.
I'll continue to give a little cheer every time I hear that the NHS computer is still not happening…
mmitII 