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Jaan I read your comments with much interest. Not only am I a health services researcher, at present doing research into the organisation of GP and similar services but for about 10 years from 1988 I did quite a bit of similar work in the (then) USSR and subsequently Russian Federation. Unfortunately I never got to Estonia but as I understand, during Soviet times the Russian and Estonian health systems were essentially similar. In my opinion the polyclinic system was one of the better aspects of the USSR health system (which is not to deny the considerable defects of Soviet healthcare in some other respects, particularly aspects of hospital care). It was wasted opportunity that in so many countries, particularly the former East Germany, that the polyclinic intrastructure was just thrown away for political reasons. It would have been better, in my view, to have taken the opportunity to run some scientfically well-designed experiments and evaluations comparing polyclinics and the western-style GP systems in terms of accessability for patients, range of services offered, patient safety, patient satisfaction, cost and - so far as possible, because it is is technically difficult - quality of clinical care. I only hope the UK government will have the sense to base its polyclinic-vs.-standard general practice decisions on evaluations of that kind. NHS IT is a long succession of heart-sink stories. Instead of the current enormous national IT projects they would if they had any sense impose a set of national and open protocols for data capture, data exchange, data encryption and security etc. and promote an open-source development model for the software. As it is, the NHS has spent billions, has been horribly ripped off, still doesn't fully own the systems and often pays outside organisations to do quite basic data analysis. And people still carry pieces of paper around. Rant over. Thanks for an interesting post! Rod Sheaff On Tuesday 04 March 2008 19:21:38 Jaan Jänesmäe wrote: > Hey! > > Many of you have read it or seen it on tv already: > http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/devon/7277275.stm > > just wanted a public opinion about it. > > anyway, as some of you know, I'm originally from Estonia, a former > soviet union country. During the soviet union time we had these > polyclinics all over the country in every bigger settlements. The > difference was, that hey were partly combined with the hospitals to > share the facilities. I still remember being a kid and walking in > there, having a GP who then transfered you to other doctors if needed. > I also remember that all the blood samples were token by the same > people who were also working in the lab examining them so no errors > with names and samples were made. When i broke my leg, the GP directed > me to the X-ray facility and surgeons and it was fixed in no time. > > I personally am amazed that nothing like this hasn't been done earlier > in this country. Another thing dissapointing me these days is the > appointment system. Luckily our own Dr. Adrian Midgley is my GP and > takes you on for a medical without an appointment. > > Now, 1 stupid question to everyone: why ain't the GP-s getting really > friendly with the hospitals and together create polyclinics also near > the hospitals? Wouldn't it be more easyer to share some of the > facilities and then the waiting lines for treatmen could be also > reduced. > > And here we go again with the old IT system: every time I have been to > the walk-in center, i'm given a paper or two after the review for the > next doctor. Why? Couldn't there be a really easy CRM (Customer > relationship management) system included? Preferably open source of > course :) > > -- > Sincerely, > Jaan Jänesmäe > ------------------------------------------------------------ > http://www.quilia.com -- Rod Sheaff, Professor of Health and Social Services Research, C401 Portland Square, University of Plymouth, Drake Circus, Plymouth Devon PL4 8AA United Kingdom E: R.Sheaff@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx F: +44-(0)1752-233890 T: +44-(0)1752-233260 -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/linux_adm/list-faq.html