Choose and Book passes 50,000 mark
More than 6,000 appointments a week are now being made through Choose and Book with the total number of bookings now over 52,000, Jane Cummings, the national director for C&B, has revealed. Speaking at a conference organised by the Health Service Journal, Ms Cummings said this was a marked improvement on July when just 100 […]
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Norfolk and Norwich shelves iSoft PAS
Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Trust have shelved the implementation of a new Patient Administration System from iSoft, provided by Accenture under the NHS National Programme for IT. The trust suspended implementation efforts due to lack of confidence in the ability of iSoft and local service provider (LSP) Accenture to deliver the system "within […]
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Whole NHS budget under the microscope
Reports today suggest that the National Programme for IT (NPfIT) will be included in a review of all health budgets to ensure that every aspect of central spending is giving value for money. There are assurances, however, that existing commitments will be honoured. The health secretary, Patricia Hewitt, confirmed the review during an interview on […]
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Trust sets up employee benefit website
Westminister PCT has launched ‘It’s All About You’, a website for staff personalised to show employee benefits, holiday and pension entitlements. Karen Broughton, director of HR and corporate affairs at Westminster PCT, said: "Staff were saying they didn’t know what they were entitled to, or how much their whole remuneration package was worth. Now they […]
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Asthma reviews by phone don’t count for QoF, say PCTs
National arbitrators for the GP contract are to rule on whether telephone reviews for patients with asthma can count towards Quality and Outcome Framework targets following two primary care trusts’ decision to disallow them. West Wiltshire PCT and Kennet and North Wiltshire PCT have told practices that telephone reviews for patients with asthma will not […]
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Database aims to improve mental healthcare of young
The First Episode of psychosis Research Network (FERN) has awarded a contract to Tribal Technology for development of a mental health database to improve the provision of mental healthcare to young people. Under the contract Tribal Technology will deliver a dedicated database solution to enable FERN to manage its data collection and analysis requirements as […]
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IT support key to NHS innovation and reform
IT support for staff and patients is recognised in the NHS chief executive’s latest report as a key element of the continuing growth, reform and improvement of the service. In the report, published this week, chief executive, Sir Nigel Crisp, says: “The experience of the last five years shows how important it is to innovate and […]
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Great Ormond Street implements electronic prescribing
Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Trust has begun implementation of JAC’s Electronic Prescribing and Medicines Administration (EPMA) System. The new EPMA system now provides clinicians at the trust with software for the electronic prescribing and administration of medicines on a nephrology ward, and work has now begun on introducing the system into other wards […]
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UCLH streamlines voice traffic management
University College London Hospitals NHS Trust (UCLH) has installed an advanced communications infrastructure that will control most of the 1.2 million plus calls received every month. The new call management system built on Telewest Business’ SRS Advanced Solutions has enabled UCLH to launch a single ‘0845’ contact number to control incoming voice traffic. Calls to […]
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N3 connections needed say community pharmacists
Lack of access to smartcards and the N3 network by community pharmacists is jeopardising the roll out of the electronic prescribing service (EPS) and important elements of the new pharmacy contract, according to the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC). But NHS Connecting for Health has rejected the claim, saying that the EPS is rolling out […]
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