Follow My Leader

Goodness, I seem to have touched a raw nerve in my last posting, in which I discussed the Sun's coverage of missing NHS patient data. To recap, I mentioned that 38,000 NHS patient records had been lost in transit between London and Sandown Medical Centre.

In the article to which I referred, it was claimed that the missing medical records - travelling via City Link courier - were on a CD. However, more recent coverage by the BBC, Channel 4 News and ComputerWorldUK suggests that it was actually stored on a backup tape. Not that it matters one little bit, of course - essential, extremely sensitive patient data is still missing, and clearly demonstrates that the NHS, and the government that runs it in our name, cannot be trusted with even the simplest administrative tasks.

Again, I expressed these and other, similar, views in my earlier post, and it seems to have attracted some attention:

At just 10 minutes past eight this morning, someone, or possibly several someones, searched Google UK for the term "sandown medical centre, data", and, having apparently found something of interest to them, they visited my blog using an IP address that resolves to "Gb-colt-trustees-of-the-london-clinic-limited". Interesting.

By 09:31, word of the debacle was obviously spreading - someone using an IP address that resolves to "National Patient Safety Agency" was busily searching Google UK for "lost nhs records gordon brown the sun", and again they found their way here.

I wonder what they wanted? Surely, the National Patient Safety Agency, with its stated aim to "lead and contribute to improved, safe patient care by informing, supporting and influencing healthcare organisations and individuals working in the health sector" doesn't need to find out about developing healthcare catastrophes from the Sun? Maybe they just wanted to see how the government's line on the problem was being represented in the media?

Then again, I suspect that Gordon Brown-Trousers, the NHS and, in fact, everyone involved in this latest example of incompetence in civic life, would very much rather that nobody had found out about it at ALL.

With embarrassment heaped upon humiliation atop disgrace, mocked and satirised at every turn, how long can the Prime Minister hope to maintain the pretence that he is even capable of running the country, let alone that he is effectively doing so? Hopefully, not for very much longer!

Billy Seggars.