I heard on the TV news this week that up to 8,000 may have died last year as a result of infections they picked up in hospitals. Amazing isn’t it. Britain has the most expensive computerisation project in the world - and the highest incidence of deaths from hospital infections in Europe. Are they by any chance connected?

Meanwhile, people still wait months and months for operations. And the impact of these lengthy waits is conditions getting worse (so an operation that’s done within four weeks may have a much better chance of sorting out a problem than one that is done 8 months later). Another long term impact is on someone’s finances. You get sick, you wait months for an operation, you go on to half pay, you get a long sick record. Job offers get withdrawn, it becomes harder to get another job and so on. All because you’re waiting for an operation.

So far, all the billions thrown at computer systems and the giant computer companies and the giant consulting firms has made very little difference to any of these issues.

But the really big question is - why on earth do we all put up with this?