Community councils unite to tackle NHS IT problems

Every community council in Rutherglen and Cambuslang is writing to NHS Lanarkshire demanding it make patients’records available at all hospitals. The councils, including Halfway and Burnside, agreed to stand together in their bid to ensure NHS Lanarkshire iron out IT problems.

The Reformer reported last month that patients from Rutherglen and Cambuslang were finding their test results not accessible to medics during appointments at Glasgow hospitals.

The four councils, who had their first joint meeting this month, have agreed that each will write to the chief executive of NHS Lanarkshire on the issue.

Jim Bolton, secretary of Rutherglen Community Council, said they were happy to back the campaign for improvements.

He said:“There seems to be difficulty accessing information both from the health board and to the health board through GPs, that’s both at NHS Lanarkshire and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.

“Most of the complaints that people have appears to be with Greater Glasgow and Clyde health board rather than Lanarkshire.”

A draft letter of complaint is currently being circulated amongst the community councils and a final version will be sent to NHS Lanarkshire in the coming weeks.

Craig Cunningham, of South Lanarkshire Health and Social Care Partnership, said:“Both NHS Lanarkshire and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde have IT systems and processes in place to enable the sharing of relevant patient information including results.

“The system went live in mid-September and it is possible that not all members of staff were aware of this which may have led to some confusion.We have taken the steps to reiterate the new processes to all staff.”