Hospitals told not to use C+B to manage demand
Hospitals that have been using Choose and Book to manage demand by withholding appointments slots have been ordered to stop doing so by their strategic health authority for the second time in less than two months. South East Coast SHA has told its hospitals and primary care trusts that it does not want routine patients […]
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NHS broadband network provider wins ISO accreditation
BT has announced that its NHS New National Network service provider arm (N3SP), the unit within BT responsible for building and supporting the broadband network for the NHS has achieved ISO 20000 accreditation for effective IT service management. N3 is the broadband infrastructure for the £12.4 billion NHS National Programme for Information Technology (NPfIT). ISO […]
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Medical search engine rated ‘better than Google’
A survey of over 200 GPs has found that two thirds feel that specialist search engines such as SearchMedica can be better sources for medical information than generic search engines such as Google. Medix-UK independently surveyed 201 GPs last month on behalf of SearchMedica to find out which sources GPs use to find medical information online. […]
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DH rejects patient opt-out requests
The Department of Health has rejected patients’ requests to stop their information being uploaded to the NHS data spine. On Friday the DH wrote to patients who had sent in a coupon from the Guardian newspaper requesting to opt-out telling them that would not be able to do. The eight page letter from the DH […]
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Fresh guidance issued on PBC data requirements
Fresh guidance on practice-based commissioning sets out the minimum data requirements that primary care trusts (PCTs) are expected to provide to GP practices. The document, ‘Practice based commissioning: practical implementation‘, makes it clear that PCTs are responsible for ensuring that the information needs of practices are met, either by providing the data themselves or contracting […]
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Information Centre to centralise social care records
The Information Centre is working towards producing a new information system for adult social care records, called the Adult Social Care Information Development Programme (ASCID). The aim of the programme is to make patient records of elderly patients more person-centred and flexible. The Information Centre is carrying out a major review of social care information […]
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Kodak to implement PACS in Tuscany
Kodak has agreed a five year deal worth €20m to install its Carestream software in the south-east region of Tuscany, Italy. Carestream PACS and information management solutions will be deployed in 14 hospitals, allowing them to centrally archive, view and manage the records of over 800,000 patients. The hospitals handle over a million radiological examinations […]
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Anger at CMO’s request to forward opt-out coupons
England’s chief medical officer Sir Liam Donaldson has written to all GPs asking them to forward to the Department of Health any letters from patients wanting to opt out of the NHS Care Records Service. The letter has enraged GP representatives who claim it would be a gross breach of privacy to forward letters from […]
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E-Health Insider wins technology journalism award
E-Health Insider’s editor and co-founder, Jon Hoeksma, was named Technology Journalist of Year in the 2006 techMark Awards last night. The award was given for Jon’s coverage of the troubles of healthcare IT supplier, iSoft. Other journalists shortlisted were: Paul Durman, Sunday Times; Jo Moulds, Daily Telegraph; Andrew Murray Watson, Independent on Sunday and Phil […]
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PCTs sign up for prescription clinical support software
Prescription software firm ScriptSwitch have been awarded contracts to provide their ‘real-time’ support software to ten Primary Care trusts. ScriptSwitch is a software package developed in partnership with the NHS which sets out to improve clinical excellence by supporting the prescriber. It delivers concise medicines management guidelines at the point of prescribing, as configured locally […]
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