I went to see the new Star Trek film Into Darkness last weekend.
Regular followers of my blog will know I’m a self confessed Trekkie and the new film has had some good write-ups. It’s certainly glossy, full of action and will keep you engrossed for more than two hours. However, older generation Trekkies like me will remember the second film in the original Star Trek franchise - The Wrath of Khan - which was released more than 30 years ago. Both films have a similar storyline, and the same bad guy, though thankfully played by different actors.
I found the similarities between the two films frustrating and felt a little cheated that an old plot had simply been re-packaged in a shiny new wrapper for a new generation (a recurring theme in the NHS).
So I hope the GP Next Generation Access project doesn’t follow the same route. In August last year Pulse reported on Next Generation Access, planned to update the current N3 connection to a faster service. I remember when we first had our N3 connection it seemed lightning-fast compared to what I had at home with a dial-up connection. Those days are long past now with most of us being used to high-speed broadband at home. By comparison my current work N3 speed is frustratingly slow.
However, there is good news as our N3 connection is finally being upgraded and the promise is it should be faster and more reliable.
The timing of this couldn’t be better as we’re changing over from EMIS LV to a central server solution with SystmOne where connection speed is important.
My only hope is it won’t be just an upgrade in name only.
Dr Hadrian Moss is a GP in Kettering, Northamptonshire. You can tweet him at @DrHMoss.
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