NHS Waltham Forest has become the first primary care trust in London to link up its RiO electronic patient record system with Choose and Book.
The PCT has announced that it has been working closely with local service provider BT, RiO supplier CSE Healthcare, and NHS London to enable appointments to be made directly into community clinics by linking the two systems.
The PCT went live with its first service, its community specialist dermatology service, in November 2009 and since then more than 400 patients have been booked into clinics on the RiO system via Choose and Book.
Other London PCTs are now looking to roll-out Choose and Book with RiO, according to the PCT.
Dr Ken Aswani, a Waltham Forest GP and medical director at NHS Waltham Forest, said enabling appointments to be booked into community clinics through Choose and Book provided a more convenient service for patients who were able to choose the date and time of their appointment.
He added: “This in turn means that we have less Did Not Attends at the clinics and we can provide a more efficient service and enable patients to be treated closer to home.”
NHS Waltham Forest said it now planned to roll-out Choose and Book via the RiO system to all appropriate community services to support the PCT’s aim of providing more services in the community and less in hospitals. It sees this as a key objective in delivering healthcare in London in the future.
Simon Midlane, associate director of ICT at NHS Waltham Forest, said the PCT identified a number of “teething issues” when it went live with its first community clinics but the majority of those had now been resolved by BT.
He added: “We are continuing to work with BT to ensure that we provide a reliable and efficient Choose and Book service for patients through RiO and we are sharing our learning with other NHS trusts that are keen to follow our lead.
"This is a really exciting development allowing us to support the Healthcare for London agenda.”
- NHS Waltham Forest was the overall winner of last year’s E-Health Insider Awards in association with BT for its implementation of the RiO mental health and community electronic patient record.
The E-Health Insider Awards 2010 in association with BT seek out and reward outstanding work within the UK healthcare IT sector. Entries are open now on the dedicated awards website.
The deadline for entries is 4 June.
The awards will be presented on Wednesday, 6 October in the Grand Hall at the Grand Connaught Rooms, Covent Garden, London. For more information or to reserve a table, please visit the awards website.
To find out more about the previous winners of the awards, visit our case studies showcase. Last year’s Healthcare ICT Champion of the Year, Andy Inniss, is now an EHI video diarist.