A new Health and Justice Information system will be rolled out to detention centres across England using TPP’s SystmOne.
TPP has been conditionally awarded a national contract to provide the new system, which will be launched in July.
This is the renewal and extension of a contract first awarded in 2009, when TPP’s SystmOne Prison was selected as the first national clinical IT system for prisons.
The new system will cover patients in prisons, immigration removal centres, youth institutes and secure children’s homes.
A statement from NHS England says it means patients in these detention centres will no longer have to wait for their medical records to be faxed over by their GP and will be able to register for general medical services with providers in their secure facility.
“Health care providers will then have access to the patient’s community records and those with complex health and social needs will benefit from continuous care that is managed faster and more appropriately,” NHS England said.
“These records can then be securely transferred back to a GP when the patient returns to the community, which will allow patients to benefit from uninterrupted care for long term conditions.”
TPP’s SystmOne is used in a large number of GP surgeries, community services and other health providers nationwide and patients registered with these services will already have a SystmOne record.
The details of how records will be transferred between other clinical systems, such as Emis Health in the GP market, have not been confirmed.
Dr Jake Hard, clinical lead for the project, prison GP and chair of the Royal College of GPs Secure Environments Group, described the new IT system as: “a significant step forward in supporting and promoting the continuity of care for those people who come into contact with the criminal justice system.
“The new developments will for the first time contribute to a more inclusive approach to providing health care in these settings and further support the clinicians providing care to their patients,” he added.