GP representatives have voted for the abolition of the Scottish computer system GPASS in a move which puts growing pressure on the Scottish Executive to act over the system used by the majority of GPs in Scotland.
The Scottish local medical committees’ conference passed a series of motions calling for GPASS to be abandoned, claiming that the system is not fit for purpose and has failed general practice and calling for central funding to be made available for practices to switch from GPASS to another system.
Dr Stuart Scott, chairman of the Scottish General Practitioner Committee’s IT sub-committee, said the message from GP representatives to the Scottish Executive could not have been stronger.
He told EHI Primary Care: “If that message doesn’t get across to the Scottish Executive I don’t know what else we can do. In the past the Scottish LMCs’ conference has always been prepared to give GPASS another chance perhaps out of sentimentality for a system that so many have used but this time there is no hint of softness. ”
The LMC votes follow a letter sent to Andy Kerr, Scottish health minister, by the leading GP IT representatives in the UK demanding urgent action to improve GPASS.
At that time NHS Services Scotland said the letter had raised no new issues but the Scottish Executive has now decided to commission an independent review of general practice IT in Scotland.
A spokesman for the Scottish Executive told EHI Primary Care: "A study is being commissioned which will identify, from a range of current stakeholders, where GP IT is currently positioned and will also identify and analyse a number of proposals which can be compared with the status quo.”
He said the executive was in the process of appointing independent experts to carry out
the work and agree the timetable will for the review which he said is not expected to run beyond a few months.
The spokesman added: “The report is expected to inform decisions about our policy for GP computing. No decisions will be taken before the report is considered."
However Dr Scott questioned the need for another review as he said two extensive reviews of GPASS had already been conducted by Prof Lewis Ritchie and Prof Mike Pringle.
He added: “They don’t need a third review to discover GPASS’ failings
and then tell us that it will all be fine – that’s what they’ve been saying since 1992.”
GPASS is used by around 85% of practices in Scotland and about a quarter of those practices have submitted a business case to move to another supplier under system choice proposals announced a year ago.
Approval to change systems is subject to local funding agreement which has caused problems in some areas but Dr Scott said some practices should be moving systems by early summer.
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