MICROSOFT CO FOUNDER DIES AGED 65

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen has died aged 65 from complications of non-hodgkin’s lymphoma. He started the company in 1975 with his school friend Bill Gates, who said he was “heartbroken by the passing of one of my oldest and dearest friends”. Mr Allen left Microsoft in 1983 and became a successful venture capitalist. He donated around $2bn during his life to causes including science, education and wildlife conservation.

Errors in a third-party IT system used across the NHS posed a “significant” clinical risk to patients and left thousands of patient records left out of date.

The NHS discovered two errors this summer with TPP’S Systmone software, used by more than 2,600 GP practices in England, including one that may have led to patients being given the wrong medication.

According to board papers published on the NHS Digital website, an error discovered on 14 August meant cancelled prescriptions on Systmone were not cancelled on other systems such as SPINE, used by social-care organisations and pharmacies.

In a separate glitch, discovered three days later, updates to 20,000 patient records made on Systmone did not show on their summary-care record, a centrally held electronic record accessed by clinicians.

“The clinical impact has been assessed as ‘major’ due to the potential for the incorrect or inappropriate medication being provided to patients”, the report said of the first failure, with practices individually contacting pharmacies to verify whether cancellation was successful.

The papers were being used to brief an NHS Digital board meeting last month. Both errors continued for at least a month and were present in the system as of 12 September. An NHS Digital spokesperson did not confirm whether the problems had been resolved.

These are the second and third major glitches with TPP’S Systmone platform that have emerged of late, after ministers revealed a Systmone failure in July led to 150,000 patients’ data being shared against their stated wishes.

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