Primis, the primary care data quality service, has won a four year contract with Connecting for Health to work with practices as the national IT programme is implemented.
The Primary Care Information Service (PRIMIS), based at Nottingham University, will deliver training, support and data analysis services to GP practices throughout England.
The new service, PRIMIS+, will be available to practices nationally, delivered through locally employed information facilitators. PRIMIS is a free service to primary care organisations and there are already about 430 PRIMIS-trained facilitators working with PCTs in England.
Alan Perkins, director of modernisation for NHS Connecting for Health said: “We look forward to working with the PRIMIS team over the next four years helping GP practices to use data more effectively and thus improving the experience of patients in primary care.”
A consultative document on the NHS Care Records Service published last month said that practices’ data will have to meet accredited quality standards before practices will be given the go ahead to have summary GP records uploaded to the spine. The first upload of summary records is expected to begin next August.
Under the contract with PRIMIS, Connecting for Health has commissioned the organisation to provide GP practices with training and information management skills for data quality, analysis of data quality plus a comparative analysis service focused on key clinical topics and support in developing action plans to improve data quality.
PRIMIS was set up in 2000 as a free training and support service for GPs and practice staff to help them make the most of their clinical computer systems. Its strategic director is Professor Mike Pringle who is also joint GP national clinical lead for Connecting for Health.
Professor Don Grierson, pro vice-chancellor for research and industry at the University of Nottingham said, “I am delighted that the university has been appointed to do this work, which will enable it to build on the success of the last five years in improving patient care.”
Links