Is access what would be best for what I need?

[Uncle Gizmo]

management have a time frame of 12 months to see whats out there,

You could try some of the "off the shelf" software products yourself. There are usually demo versions available.

Trying out demo software will let you see how others have tackled the various issues/problems that you will be up against.

 

[Donury236]

The NHS IT dept, particularly the MS SQL guys might make things difficult for you.

Thankfully its the Cooncil IT guys as that's who we are in the partnership. They apparently like to tinker with things. I've not had much time to look at anything to do with it lately as we are on emergency procedures at work. Hoping to soon though as I am getting even more irate at having to use multiple spreadsheets every day