Kingston Hospital has been forced to spend £800,000 for IT support “floorwalkers” as NHS staff struggle to come to grips with a troubled computerised records system.
Delays in implementing the £12.7bn national Care Records Service (CRS) cost Kingston £500,000 last summer in contractors and staff kept on the payroll in readiness for its introduction.
The overall cost of teething problems in the new system so far is more than £1.2m, although the trust said it had made some of the money back.
Floorwalkers roam around providing IT support for frustrated workers trying to input information into the system.
The number of calls to the help desk has dropped to about 50-a-day, with training for staff who have problems using it.
Kate Grimes, hospital chief executive, said: “I think we have got all the key issues on to the table. More clinicians are beginning to see the benefits of deployment of the system.” Chairman Christopher Smallwood said: “Although there have been some rough edges, this has been the most successful introduction of CRS.”
Waiting lists at Barts and the London NHS Trust were the worst in the country when the hospital struggled to keep track of patients on its IT systems following the introduction of CRS.
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