More than 750,000 adult patient records at the L&D and Bedford Hospital are now digital, saving the trust about £2m a year, plus £30,000 a month on storage.
Every general adult patient record at the Luton and Dunstable University Hospital and Bedford Hospital has now been digitised: more than 750,000 local medical records in all, according to a news release from Alex Mayer, MP for Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard, on Friday 23 October.
Both hospitals are run by Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. The release says the change is expected to save the trust around £2 million a year, including £30,000 a month it was spending to store paper records off-site.
What changes on the ward
The release says doctors and nurses can now open a patient’s notes “at the touch of a button rather than having to hunt down old paper files”.
It also says several members of NHS staff will be able to view the same record securely at the same time, “cutting delays, reducing paperwork, and so freeing up valuable time to spend with patients.”
The money
The £30,000 a month for off-site storage works out at £360,000 a year, part of the roughly £2 million annual saving the release puts on the move. It does not break down where the rest of the saving comes from.
What the MP said
Welcoming the change, Alex Mayer said:
“A one-stop shop for patients’ health information means less paperwork, fewer errors and more time for NHS staff to do what they do best, caring for patients. It’s a win for patients, staff and taxpayers, as this Labour Government gets on with driving digital innovation across our NHS.”
The release links the work to the government’s plans for a single patient record, which would bring together medical information currently held by different NHS services “so staff can access the information they need to care for patients, wherever they are treated.”
What it means for you
- If you are treated as an adult at the L&D or Bedford Hospital, your general record is now held digitally, so staff should not need to wait for a paper file to arrive before seeing your history.
- The release covers general adult records. It does not say whether children’s records or other specialist records have been digitised as well.
- There is nothing patients need to do. The trust publishes how it handles personal data and your rights over your records in its privacy notice.
Have your say