This article highlights how the most ordinary tasks using most health systems is now slow and clumsy by comparison with other experiences in the newly digitised world of services. Link.
Take prescriptions, for example, I am not sure that my physical presence is required three times to obtain a repeat prescription: once at the doctor’s surgery to pick it up (even when I do not need to meet the doctor), and again at the pharmacy to drop it off, followed by a quick walk around the shops while they make it up and concluding with the final pleasantries and payment before walking back to the office.
Were you designing the system now you would not elect to take data (on my GP’s computer) print it on a slip of paper, initial it, and hand it to a human, to carry around for a while, before presenting it to be re-digitised at the pharmacy. Let’s not even go to the issue of payment.
The matter of patient data is another bit of territory that is begging for an overhaul. A great database of information exists on your health and it is currently held by your GPs, specialists, and health service. Two recent experiences of friends underline that the service’s attitude is generally that the data is ‘theirs’ – it isn’t, and that view has got to stop. Making that data available, searchable, and shareable would make so many transactions more efficient – not just obtaining prescriptions, but making health choices every day, with a positive impact on health for millions.