ALAS MTAS!

摘要

You couldn't want a better example of the Blair effect on health than MTAS. Ill-advised (because doctors were barely consulted), rushed, expensive, and entirely dependent on computers, Patricia Hewitt's declaring it dead was probably one of her final acts as Secretary of State for Health. To paraphrase the poet: ‘How did it fail us? Let us count the ways.’ Blogs, bulletin boards, and e-letters to journals have documented a disaster far worse than the petty inefficiencies of the NHS about which doctors are daily criticised by politicians who see us as the problem.