The NHS is in a state of crisis, with increasingly long delays for ambulances and emergency care. Often people believe that hospital delays and bottlenecks are caused entirely by the difficulty of discharging patients to social care. But there is another factor which is just as much of a problem, and which should be far easier to fix: the masses of unnecessary paperwork doctors and nurses have to fill out every day.
In many hospitals as many as 30 pages of nursing documents have to be filled out every time a patient is admitted to hospital
In the picture above, I once laid next to all the forms nurses had to fill out for a single patient who had diabetes and needed intravenous antibiotics. Most of the documents were double sided and there were other forms that had to be filled out on a computer. I am 5ft 10, and I was still dwarfed by the sheer amount of paperwork.
Britain’s best politics newsletters
You get two free articles each week when you sign up to The Spectator’s emails.
Already a subscriber? Log in
Comments
Join the debate for just £1 a month
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for £3.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just £1 a monthAlready a subscriber? Log in