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From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
Missing digital medical records of thousands of patients of the National Hospital, Abuja, has sparked outrage, confusion and frustrations, among patients and numerous health workers in the hospital.
This has forced patients and health workers to begin a fresh process of registration with new hospital identification numbers being issued to patients (old and new), as their former identification numbers could not be used to access their medical records in the hospital for further medical attention.
The National Hospital, some years ago, migrated to a digital platform ‘health in the box’ for the documentation of patients records and history, thus promoting efficiency and easy access to medical records of patients.
Daily Sun gathered that the hospital was ‘thrown in the dark’ on New Year Day when the health workers resumed work and noticed that the system had crashed, hence, they could not access the digital medical data platform they often used to check medical records of patients to provide the right medical services.
Some of the health workers told Daily Sun that the service providers handling the digital medical records platform known as ‘health in the box’, for unknown reason, decided to deliberately or otherwise, ‘crash’ the platform and do away with the medical data of patients and other digital records of the hospital, leaving no backup behind.
However, there are unconfirmed reports that the action of the service providers that had handled the platform for years, could be as a result of disagreements in cost of service and inability of the hospital to meet its financial obligations to the service providers.
As a result, the entire medical history of all patients of the National Hospital were wiped off, thus leaving the health workers with no information on what to do as regards the history of the patients’ health for further action.
A health worker in the hospital confirmed that the hospital was forced to revert to the old practice of paper documentation of patients and their health history, and will continue with the system until a new efficient system is installed.
The health worker said: “This is frustrating for us, the workers and the patients. Patients’ records have been suddenly wiped off by the failed digital service providers. We heard they left with all the data of the patients and the hospital without prior notice.
“We are seriously frustrated by this ugly development. For instance, we have patients with different ailments; those at different levels of treatment; those owing the hospital; those that have deposits; those on NHIS services; those on chemotherapy; and several others. Unfortunately, all the information of these patients have been wiped off. No trace nor backup. This implies that we start fresh documentation of patients without a detailed history of their health.
“Undoubtedly, the digital platform has been in use for several years, and has redefined medical records in the hospital. It has enhanced efficient and effective communication within the hospital. Different health workers could communicate seamlessly on the platform without physical engagement or paperwork.
“However, a few days ago, we heard that a new digital record platform has been installed for a fresh start. Passwords and username are being distributed to health workers but we are yet to get the training required to operate the system efficiently and effectively. So, we still use the old ways of documentation of patients records in an office file.
“The hospital will be required to issue a new card and identification number to patients. This is because the existing card cannot be used to access the old records. The new digital record platform didn’t recover previous data of patients’ health history, and that has further increased our frustration. It will obviously take quite some time for the new platform to stabilise, and for the health workers to get acquainted with it.”
Some National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) patients at NHIS point located along the Hospital Street, said the situation had increased the frustration of patients in the hospital.
One NHIS patient, who identified herself as Hauwa, said the frustration was much on her, as she has been forced to move from one point to the other in the hospital, filing one form or the other because her medical records are in the crashed database, and the newly installed platform was not accepting old records of patients using the personal identification number.
She wondered what could have made the management of the National Hospital to allow the service providers to allegedly ‘crash’ the digital platform, leaving no backup to enable the new service providers to continue to provide service to the patients through the hospital.
Meanwhile, spokesman of the hospital, Tayo Haastrup, told Daily Sun that the digital medical record platform was not crashed by the service providers, nor was there no backup information.
He said: “What happened was that the hospital left ‘health in the box’ digital platform and switched to a new service provider, and as expected of new software, there will be teething problems at the initial stage. That’s exactly what was happening.”
He, thus, denied the claims that the old service providers left with the entire medical database without a backup.
“That information is not correct and should be disregarded. There’s backup and that’s what is being built upon,” he said.
