John Radcliffe develops e-prescribing for blood
John Radcliffe Hospital, part of the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust, is developing a new electronic prescribing system for blood products to support its transfusion processes. The aim is to improve patient safety and cut inappropriate blood prescribing. The initiative is the latest step in the development of its electronic blood transfusion system, which uses […]
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NPfIT urged to communicate with nurses
The Royal College of Nursing have called for better communication between nursing staff and the National Programme for IT, and have offered to help the programme reach out and talk to them. Sharon Levy, Informatics Adviser at the RCN, speaking at the ‘Practical Steps to Implementation of NPfIT’ conference in London, said that nurses "have to […]
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Scotland considering buying replacement GP system
The Scottish Executive Health Department (SEHD) is considering the procurement of an alternative IT system for Scottish GPs. Dr Stuart Scott, chair of the BMA’s Scottish General Practitioner Committee’s IT sub-committee, told EHI Primary Care that the SEHD are discussing the possible procurement of an alternative system with the SGPC and the RCGP. He added: […]
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E-mail mentoring to help budding nurses
The University of East Anglia has set up an e-mail mentoring programme to help 14-15 year-olds from deprived backgrounds who have expressed an interest in entering nursing and other health professions realise their dreams. Students from UEA’s School of Nursing and Midwifery, along with students from the School of Medicine, Health Policy and Practice and […]
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PACS installed across rural Welsh NHS Trust
North West Wales NHS Trust is to implement LifeImaging PACS software from Ferrania across its nine hospitals, many of which fall in rural areas. According to Ferrania, the filmless system will have particular benefits for the trust as it will save them money and time transporting copies of files between sites, as well as cutting […]
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Doctors’ belief in NHS IT project fading
Doctors’ enthusiasm for the NHS National Programme for IT (NPfIT) has declined sharply over the past 12 months, with the steepest decline occurring among GPs. A tracking survey of 900 hospital doctors and GPs, published today, found there has been a precipitous decline in GPs support for the IT modernisation programme over the past six […]
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GPs say they are not being listened to
Lack of consultation and the threat to GPs existing computer systems are the biggest failings of the National Programme for IT and the ones that has angered most GPs, according to feedback from GPs who were questioned in the latest survey by Medix-UK. Out of the 900 doctors who took part in the survey, 191 […]
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Pessimism rife among doctors about NPfIT’s benefits
The latest Medix-UK survey, co-sponsored by E-Health Insider, shows that three years into the NHS National Programme for IT confidence in and enthusiasm for the programme has declined among NHS doctors, with a particularly sharp fall among GPs. Most doctors still believe that the national programme is an important priority for the NHS, though levels […]
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The loneliness of being first
The IT industry has a phrase for being at the front of the queue for any complex new technology: being at the ‘bleeding edge’ of development. This is where Undercliffe GP practice in Batley, West Yorkshire has been since last August when it began work to become the first Spine-enabled primary care computer system under […]
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E-mail consultations must be documented, says study
A study in Finland has found that communication by e-mail between doctors and their patients is already extremely common, so much so that electronic patient record systems that are being developed should contain the functionality to document all communication. Johanna Castren and Marja Niemi, from the University of Tampere, Finland, and Marja Niemi, from the […]
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