Many UK hospitals still using paper, despite electronic system target

While Malaysia had two pioneering hospitals meant to be paperless nearly two decades ago, most are still using paper in a situation similar to the UK. — Filepic

Three-quarters of health trusts in England that responded to a survey by The BMJ medical journal are still reliant on paper patient notes and drug charts, despite progress towards electronic records and prescribing.

The results came in just as an expert panel convened by a UK House of Commons committee concluded that the UK government had failed to meet a key target to eliminate paper prescribing in hospitals and to introduce digital or electronic prescribing across the entire UK National Health Service (NHS) by 2024.