Ambulance trusts join map data sharing deal
Ambulance trusts in England will now have the opportunity to share geographical data with other trusts as part of a deal between the Health and Social Care Information Centre and Ordnance Survey. The Ordnance Survey has announced that 31 ambulance trusts will now be able to join the agreement, signed in November 2005. They will […]
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Fujitsu wins CfH support contract
NHS Connecting for Health has awarded Fujitsu the contract to supply its national front line service support desk. The contract, which will last until 2013, will require Fujitsu to set up four call centres in Wakefield, Stevenage, Manchester and Foots Cray in Kent. They will manage an estimated four million calls per year. The support desks […]
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PCTs register a third of pharmacists for smartcards
Around one in three community pharmacists have been registered to use a smartcard to use the electronic prescription service (EPS) according to Connecting for Health but pharmacy representatives and businesses are continuing to raise concerns about the speed of rollout. Connecting for Health has published its first figures on the registration of pharmacists for smartcards […]
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TPP commits to more user communication channels
Primary and community care systems supplier, TPP, met over 150 of its customers in its first series of user meetings recently. TPP, whose SystmOne is used in general practice, child health, community and prison health services, has followed up with a commitment to introduce more channels of communication, including regular newsletters and further user meetings […]
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Companies gear up for interoperability marathon
Two hundred and fifty representatives of seventy healthcare IT companies will gather in Barcelona next week for the 6th annual European “Connectathon” – a week-long event devoted to the quest for interoperability. As its name suggests, the meeting is a ‘connectivity marathon’ where companies will take advantage of the opportunity to test their products in what […]
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Carruthers becomes the fifth SRO for NHS IT programme
Sir Ian Carruthers, acting chief executive of the NHS, has been appointed the latest overall senior responsible owner for the £6.2bn national programme for IT in the NHS (NPfIT). He becomes the most senior person yet to take on the mantle for the late-running NHS IT project, which has had a string of different SROs since […]
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Integrated health system needed for Scotland’s young
NHS Scotland should be working towards a single integrated information system to support improvements in the health of children and young people, according to a new consultation document issued by the Scottish Executive. In the interim, there are a number of systems which could be brought together or interfaced and this work needs to be […]
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Unstoppable momentum in e-health rollout, says Granger
Connecting for Health has reached an unstoppable momentum and "essentially the war is won", chief executive Richard Granger has told a conference in Australia. He is quoted in The Australian newspaper as saying that patients are already benefiting from the programme and that deployment was well underway. "The real revolution is in patients being able […]
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GPC agrees IT infrastructure funding guidance
Clinical system servers, workstations, printers, back-up devices and network infrastructure are among a list of core items practices can expect primary care trusts (PCTs) to fully fund, maintain and upgrade, according to new guidance agreed by the Department of Health and the British Medical Association’s General Practitioner Committee (GPC). The long-awaited guidance agreed between the two […]
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MDU warns practices of data transfer privacy risks
Practices must warn patients that electronic transmission of data is not totally secure or foolproof, says a medical defence organisation in its new guidance on confidentiality. The Medical Defence Union has updated its guide to confidentiality and included a revised section on new recording and communication technologies. It says technologies such as mobile phones, video […]
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