Do you invest enough in the IT at your practice?

Originally published in GP magazine .

Written for GP magazine around 2011. This is the version I submitted - the published article may have been edited.

Do you invest enough in the IT at your practice? What’s that I hear you cry - why should you invest anything? Surely the PCT should provide all the IT equipment? Well, I think it’s a mistake to rely on the PCT for everything, and as times get harder you may want to think about spending some of your own money to top up what little comes your way. The point being that the PCT will only ever buy the cheapest, most basic, minimal-spec kit it can get away with.

One of my partners was constantly driven mad by people using his mouse and leaving it on the wrong side of his keyboard. The cable was too short and he was forever pulling and tugging at the mouse to get it in position. A £10 wireless mouse changed his life. My wife had the same problem at her practice - but there I persuaded her to get a rechargeable cordless mouse, so she doesn’t have that mid-surgery dash for the battery.

I spend a lot of time doing searches and playing with spreadsheets and generally having lots of windows open. I put my hand in my back pocket and bought a 23-inch widescreen monitor. It’s amazing the difference it makes.

As a practice we decided to buy a colour laser printer and network it up so that key members of staff could use it. Although not cheap, compared to when the same people all had an expensive colour inkjet each, overall it’s quite a cost saving, and the short walk to get the printing means people think twice about printing everything out.

Thinking about IT to this level is a more bespoke service than most are used to, and by its nature means different people get different things - a novel idea in general practice. Thought needs to be put into who needs what, how much it will cost and what the return on investment is. One partner might benefit from a speech recognition system, and it might have knock-on effects in terms of coding and not running late. Another might benefit from a laptop to do work from home. Some would genuinely find an iPad or similar very useful for emails. Overall the practice needs to be seen to be gaining, so think about how you are going to measure success.

You must have a good relationship with your IT department. If you can get them on board they will be a great help, particularly as they will need to support the kit. It might be worth discussing next time a replacement PC is needed whether you can top it up for a better-spec model or a bigger screen. It might be worth discussing with them whether they can get hold of any bulk discounts for you, or what advice they may have on getting the most from your IT.