New Read codes for hospital choice
GP practices have been advised to start using new Read codes to record choice of hospital as soon as possible in order to qualify for incentive scheme payments this year. The British Medical Association’s General Practitioner Committee has written to local medical committees to highlight the new Read codes which are expected to be used […]
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Malta awards Euros 15.8m health IT contract
The Maltese Government has awarded US Affiliated Computer Services, Inc a seven-year, Euros 15.8m ($21m) contract to provide modern health information systems. The new agreement is the first phase of the Maltese Government’s Integrated Health Information System (IHIS), which aims to improve the management of healthcare records. ACS will provide the hardware, software, and expertise […]
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Altnagelvin hospital system crashes
Altnagelvin Hospital in Londonderry, Northern Ireland was left unable to make bookings for 48 hours last week due to ‘a combination of hardware and software problems’ with their iSoft patient administration system (PAS). The system could not access the appointments database to make bookings for two days – Wednesday and Thursday – last week, staff […]
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Wales to launch electronic sick notes
The Department of Work and Pensions in Wales is to launch a trial of electronic sick notes in GP practices. The DWP told EHI Primary Care that its plan was for GP practices in south Wales to take part in the pilot of electronic versions of the Med 3 form although at the moment there […]
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NHS 24 struggles to cope with rise in calls
NHS 24, Scotland’s national health information phoneline, is struggling to cope with a rise in phone calls from patients. The helpline revealed in its annual review that it had taken calls from almost 1.5m people in the last year, but had answered less calls within its 30 seconds target than the previous year. In its […]
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Government refuses independent review of NPfIT
The government has refused to hold an independent review of the National Programme for IT in their response to the Public Accounts Committee report on NHS IT. According to a report in Computerworld UK, the news is revealed in a set of Treasury minutes, where the government have promised to publish a full annual statement […]
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Barriers to telehealth spelt out
Barriers and possible solutions to the implementation of telecare and telehealth have been set out in latest advice from the government agency providing support for telecare. The Care Services Improvement Partnership (CSIP) has listed more than 20 potential problems faced by organisations commissioning and integrating telecare into health, housing and social services. Issues raised by […]
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Central Middlesex counts benefits of VoIP
Staff at the Central Middlesex Hospital, London, have benefited from a new Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) system from Nortel which has helped reduce call charges and system administration, without needing to change any telephone numbers. The hospital, part of the North West London Hospitals NHS Trust, was being redeveloped as part of a Private […]
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Contract ‘reset’ underway in the South
The new NHS programme director for the NHS IT programme in the South of England says she is not happy with the core patient administration system delivered so far, and confirmed that a far-reaching ‘reset’ of contracts has been launched. Sarah Elmendorf took up the new post of programme director at the Southern Programme for […]
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Fujitsu says ‘full steam ahead’ in South
Half of the Southern cluster’s 35 sites have agreed ‘full steam-ahead’ go-live dates to take the initial Millennium patient administration system, E-Health Insider has learned from local service provider (LSP) for the region, Fujitsu. Fujitsu’s managing director for the UK public sector, Peter Hutchinson, told E-Health Insider that the local service provider is engaged in […]
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