OK, this just sounds totally weird and pity the poor Welsh who seem to be being used a guinea pigs. To save you clicking on the link it basically says that the Department for Work and Pensions are planning to trial "electronic sick notes" that doctors can fill in for patients. A DWP spokesman said that the software had not yet been chosen, and "it was unclear how employers would access this information or how GPs would administer the process".
Well let's think about this for a minute. I can see a reason for electronic sick notes. As the story points out, doctors scrawly handwriting for a start, but how to do it? Well you could have a piece of basic database software I guess that stored the info and prints it all out with a digitally signed signature image. Although that won't link up with the DWP and will still require an employee to send the sick note off.
Alternatively you could have a web based system with a database back end I guess where doctors could create sick notes and then patients are given a unique reference key to give to their employers so that the sick note can be accessed. That would imply exposing patient record detail online though in some way, that could be bad... very bad. Plus who would manage the system? The DWP, or the NHS and DoH?
I don't know why, but I have this awful feeling that some grand scheme is going to be proposed that will cost a fortune to pilot and then be scrapped after a couple years because it's not fit for purpose. For some reason the very notion of some sort of wonderful centralised electronic sick note system where doctors and the DWP share information makes me think of bespoke systems and the words "Health" "Connecting" and "for", at which point I find myself running away screaming at the sky.
13 comments:
I would suggest web app backed by database. Patients would have to get a validation number that they gave to their employers, I would think, keyed to that sicknote, so the employer would need to log on, enter employee's name and NI number (both of which they obviously know) plus the validation number and then get the sicknote.
The validation number would have to be from some sort of set from which they were randomly (but uniquely) picked, but that's not a big problem (as GUIDs go).
Sure, patient info is exposed, but just the same patient info as is exposed with a sicknote. You could add more security to it (such as patient's specifying who could access what) with extra overhead.
How about the doctor emails the employers the sick note with his ID number and some sort of electronic signature. Doesn't sound much easier than a note but not much more difficult either.
THat assumes the employer has an email address and potentially the facility to validate the cert is genuine.
Also email is not a guaranteed delivery service.
The employee (John say) is given a special credit card number by the employer. The doctor charges a nominal amount of money to this credit card number and prints out a receipt. John keeps a copy of the receipt and another copy goes to the DWP. The employer sees that the credit card number has been used, knows that it was through a recognised doctor and doesn't expect John in that day. The amount charged can be proportional to the number of sick days and so the employer can calculate when next to expect John to turn up for work.
Why am I wasting my time writing this?!!
So every employer in the country has to spend more money on card that may or may not be used for each employee?
No it's not a card, it's just a number.
It's a way of using existing equipment without any development whaysoever.
More importantly it can be called 'electronic' and the DWP can get on with something else. Such as proposing that the system for generating new ideas for improvements be automated. (Or perhaps they have already done that.)
A number you say? Like a National insurance number that we all already have? How does the employer know that number has been used? How does the DWP get the infromation? Upion what does the DWP store the infromation? Is the data encrypted? What cross referential data is there and what sharing is there between the DWP and DoH?
Incidnetally, sick notes are not what you get when yo're not going to be going in one. What it actually means is being signed off.
The employer gets a bill.
The DWP gets a copy of the receipt and uses it's existing system to store the information.
The employee keeps a copy of the receipt to use as proof when the whole system screws up.
But what has this got to do with the DWP? The process is just between the employee A & employer B, with the doctor C offering an expert opinion on behalf of A to B. A & C have to physically meet for the opinion to be formed. The note has to be delivered to B. The only question is what's the best way to do that?
So all this is just a way of circumventing the occasional possibility of non-delivery of the mail? Sheesh!
I don't see why you can't have this AND sicknotes, if some employers prefer them. I mean, if you have the IT end sorted out, it's not like we have to wait for someone to invent the printer.
Dizzy, Surprisingly you and your correspondents are falling into the trap of so many public sector projects. Lets have a clear problem statement that we can all agree is worth fixing before we go on to debate the simplest, lowest cost, lowest risk solution.
If the problem is that Doctor's poor handwriting leads to errors in the subsequent use of a sick-note, then giving them all a John Bull printing kit would be one idea.
SP
Where can I bid for this system? How much do I have to loan/donate to Labour to get the contract?
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