NHS Direct launches on Freeview for Christmas
NHS Direct is bracing itself for its busiest Christmas period since its launch in 1999, having launched a new channel on Freeview to enable it to reach an extra 6.4 million households. The service is expecting to take over 70,000 calls and have over 50,000 website hits in Christmas week – with most calls expected […]
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Two-thirds in Wales access health information online
A survey commissioned by Informing Healthcare, the Welsh healthcare IT programme, has revealed that almost two-thirds of people in Wales source health information online. Informing Healthcare commissioned Pricewaterhouse Coopers International Survey Unit to research the preferred method for adults in Wales to source health information, with 1002 people participating in the telephone survey between March […]
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Bury PCT starts using GP2GP to transfer records
Bury PCT has become the latest PCT using INPS Vision to begin using electronic GP2GP record transfers of patient records. The system was deployed simultaneously across all 33 practices in the PCT last last month. All use Vision and have Choose and Book and release one of the Electronic Prescription Service installed. Bury PCT had […]
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BT investigates slow connections for GPs
N3 provider BT has been investigating ways in which it might improve its service for GP practices using the EMIS computer system which have been struggling with slow connection speeds to their branch surgeries. EHI Primary Care understands that BT has been running experiments on alternative configurations and that solutions identified by that work will […]
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Patients to be able to veto spine uploads
Health minister Lord Warner yesterday announced a significant u-turn in government policy on patient’s details being automatically loaded onto the NHS spine summary care record, stating that patients will now have the right to request their details not be uploaded. Lord Warner announced the concession at a press conference yesterday to announce the publication of […]
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Coventry and Warwicks switches to automated reporting
University Hospitals of Coventry and Warwickshire (UHCW) NHS Trust has implemented DataWatch Europe’s Monarch Data Pump – an automated reporting system which can combine and manipulate data into a format that suits the user. UHCW has the largest new university ‘super’ hospital in Britain and sees one million patients a year with around 30,000 appointments […]
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Worskshops aim to boost C+B uptake
The Department of Health is to hold a workshop in every strategic health authority in England in an attempt to boost uptake of Choose and Book. The ten sessions, to be held in January and early February next year, will include presentations from the national Choose and Book team and high performing local health communities […]
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Opt-out consent model to be kept for SCR
The government is to stick to its plan that patients must opt-out of the NHS Care Records Service (NCRS), although some patients will now get the chance to view their record online before information is uploaded for sharing. The decision appears to have won the backing of the British Medical Association and the Royal College […]
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Ministerial review to back summary care records
The government is today expected to announce that it will press ahead with plans to begin trials of a national electronic patient record database beginning with summary records. The government’s patients’ tsar Harry Cayton will today say the system, which will hold records for 50m people in England, is needed to modernise the NHS. Cayton […]
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Revised plan for ‘sealed envelopes’ published
Sealed envelopes are likely to become available from 2008/9, according to the latest briefing paper from NHS Connecting for Health which outlines plans to allow patients to make clinical information invisible if they choose. The revised plans for sealed envelopes mean that patients can opt to have sensitive information “sealed” or “sealed and locked” from […]
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