Public-private venture ‘to improve access’ to info
Dr Foster, a commercial provider of healthcare information, and the NHS Health and Social Care Information Centre have formed a new public-private partnership with the aim of improving public access to information. Dr Foster Intelligence is the name chosen for the new venture which, the partners say, will combine commercial acumen from the private sector […]
News
Pharmacists to get access to EPS but not CRS
Pharmacists are to be registered for access to the NHS spine to enable electronic transmission of prescriptions but will be excluded from access to the NHS Care Records Service for the time being, latest guidance reveals. The guidance sent out to primary care trusts by the Department of Health and NHS Connecting for Health states […]
News
NHS CfH says spine now fixed
NHS Connecting for Health, the DH agency responsible for delivery of the NHS National Programme for IT, has issued a briefing note stating that service levels have been restored to normal following service reliability and availability problems with the NHS spine over recent weeks. According to CfH briefing note a normal service has been operating […]
News
Ofcom calls for review of hospital phone charges
A review group is to be set up to look at hospital bedside telephone and entertainment services and see whether these can be provided without controversial high charges for incoming calls to patients. Ofcom, the communications watchdog, recommended that the review should be conducted by the Department of Health following its own six month investigation […]
News
US regional information networks predicted to grow
Forrester Research is predicting that 2006 will be the year that new regional information networks and organisations (RHIOs), that will enable clinicians to securely exchange patient medical records, will slowly begin to come on line in the US. In a report on trends in US healthcare over the next 12 months, the research firm states […]
News
CSC Alliance told to make switch on PACS/RIS
New suppliers look highly likely to be brought in an effort to sort out the mired Picture Archiving and Communications Systems (PACS) programme in the North West and West Midlands region of the NHS, E-Health Insider has learned. Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC), the local service provider for the NHS National Programme for IT in the […]
News
GP says C+B not economic for his practice
A GP has claimed the newly-announced incentives on offer for Choose and Book will still make it uneconomical for his practice to take part in the scheme. Dr David Lewis, a GP in Watford, Hertfordshire, has written to the British Medical Journal to outline his concerns. In the letter he says his practice has calculated that […]
News
PCT reorganisation unsettles IT community
The NHS IT community has echoed the House of Commons health select committee’s criticism of the government’s latest reorganisation of PCTs, expressing unease about the future roles of IT departments within the new order. The health committee slammed the government policy, Commissioning the Patient Led NHS, which will see the number of PCTs and strategic health authorities drastically […]
News
Hospitals trial online complaint resolution
An electronic dispute resolution system for patients, which allows parties to come to agreement online using electronic templates, is currently being trialled in hospitals in the UK. The MeDispute system will allows patients to file their views, comments and complaints online. Patients will be able to register, login and send across a complaint or comment […]
News
Warning on patient data from medicines reviews
Pharmacists are being warned not to e-mail medicines use reviews to GPs until concerns over confidentiality have been addressed. The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee says there has been an “exponential increase” in the number of medicines use reviews (MURs) currently being carried out by pharmacists and that many GPs have asked to receive the MUR […]
News