MPs call for review of NHS IT programme costs
Tim Farron, Liberal Democrat MP for Westmoreland & Lonsdale, has stepped up his campaign for an independent review of the costing on the National Programme for IT. Farron, who earlier last month initiated an early day motion asking for a full, independent investigation of NPfIT’s finances, told Parliament that he believed the level of spending […]
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GP leads reject consent plan for care records
The national representative body of GPs has decided to reject Connecting for Health’s (CfH) modified plan for the summary care record because it is not based on an opt-in consent model. The British Medical Association’s General Practitioner Committee (GPC) met last week to discuss the revised plans and said afterwards it had ‘strong concerns’ about the […]
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Avon unconvinced on Choose and Book
A local medical committee representing GPs with one of the lowest take-up rates for Choose and Book in England says it continues to believe the system is not worth doing, despite a visit from Department of Health officials. Avon LMC, the second largest unitary LMC in England covering 750 GPs, says usage figures for Choose […]
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Two trusts to use new Eclipse maternity system
Bradford Teaching Hospitals and Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trusts are poised to start implementing a new maternity information system which brings together care records and information from fetal monitoring. The system, Eclipse MIS, has been developed by Huntleigh Healthcare, makers of non-invasive healthcare devices, and Care Records, a company specialising in clinical records. Care Records was bought recently […]
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Heart of England procures independently on PACS
Heart of England Foundation NHS Trust in Birmingham has gone outside the nationally negotiated NHS Connecting for Health (CfH) contract to tender for a full digital imaging solution comprising picture archive and communications system (PACS). Earlier this month the trust has placed an advert in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) for PACS, […]
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CBT pilots to include computer therapies
EHI Primary Care has learned that the Department of Health is preparing to include the use of computer software as part of new pilots of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) for depression in London and Yorkshire. The announcement follows the National Institute for Clinical Excellence’s independent appraisal committee clearing Beating the Blues, a CD-ROM and web-based ‘talking therapy’ programme, […]
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Accolades for clinical and IT collaboration
NHS Connecting for Health has awarded five accolades to NHS organisations for their work in improving patient led services where clinicians, IT and information teams have worked together. The accolades went to: South Tees NHS Trust for its Hospital at Night (H @ N) rapid response system. Every junior doctor who is part of the […]
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PACS underway in half of English trusts
Around half of trusts in England either have a picture archiving and communications system “happening, about to happen or happened”, the UK Radiological Congress in Birmingham heard this week National clinical lead for radiological imaging, Dr Erika Denton, said 63 business cases were approved out of a total of 134, 50 purchase orders had been […]
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Number of PCTs to be halved
Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt this week announced the reorganisation of Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) in England, almost halving the number from the current 303 to 152. The new Primary Care Trusts will be established from 1 October 2006. The DH said the announcement was the final part of the ‘Commissioning a Patient-Led NHS’ consultation, which […]
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European ‘Connect-a-thon’ tests interoperability
Over 60 healthcare software companies and organisations from all over the world have gathered together in Spain to test the interoperability of their systems. A total of 700 combinations of system and 1600 tests were carried out over four days in Barcelona in a yearly European ‘Connect-a-thon’, organised by Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise in Europe […]
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