Comms strategy must be tested for emergencies
Every NHS organisation must test their communication strategy twice a year in order to ensure readiness for major incidents, according to new guidelines published by the NHS’s Emergency Preparedness Division. Updated emergency planning guidance now under development will include details on how NHS Direct is to be used in the event of a major incident. The NHS […]
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Primis wins NHS data quality contract
Primis, the primary care data quality service, has won a four year contract with Connecting for Health to work with practices as the national IT programme is implemented. The Primary Care Information Service (PRIMIS), based at Nottingham University, will deliver training, support and data analysis services to GP practices throughout England. The new service, PRIMIS+, […]
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Scottish GPs aim for 90% e-referral in 2006
Scottish GPs should be sending 90% of referrals electronically by the end of March next year, according to new guidance on preparation for a single record. The target is just one of the areas covered in the letter from the Scottish Executive which is designed to mitigate the risks of planning blight before a new […]
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Results not excuses, Aussie guru tells NHS IT leaders
An international expert in project management has told senior NHS IT staff that internal politics and a ‘silo mentality’ are to blame for organisations’ poor project delivery, and called for a new focus on delivering ‘results, not excuses’ in order to reverse the trend. Alan Patching, billed modestly on his personal website www.alanpatching.com, as an […]
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Survey shows support for ‘.health’ TLD
There is considerable support for a ‘.health’ top level domain (TLD), but as long as it is restricted to sites offering professional advice only, says a new survey by the Health On the Net Foundation. 45% of patients and professional groups surveyed across the US and Europe said that a ‘.health’ TLD would be useful […]
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James Paget gets outsider PACS
James Paget Healthcare NHS Trust in Norfolk has become the first hospital trust in England to go live with an out-of-cluster PACS system – one supplied by a local service provider from outside the trust’s region. Although the trust sits within the Eastern region of the NHS National Programme for IT (NPfIT), last Thursday it […]
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AAH launches ‘onestopshop’ ETP solution
AAH Pharmaceuticals has announced the launch of its ‘onestopshop’ Electronic Prescription Service solution, an all-inclusive solution based on its LinkEvolution system and building on experience gained from initial ETP implementations. According to AAH the new solution is both user friendly and meets the required criteria for NHS Connecting for Health’s (CfH) ETP release one. So […]
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Microsoft claims SharePoint success in NHS
Microsoft has announced that the number of users of its SharePoint collaboration and filesharing technology in the NHS has increased 25-fold since it signed an enterprise-wide agreement with Connecting for Health. The software, which became heavily discounted to NHS users in May 2004 as part of a wider enterprise-wide agreement, allows organisations to share and […]
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IMS offers Choose and Book solution
IMS Maxims has announced the immediate availability of its Integrated Choose And Book (ICAB) system which enables NHS and independent healthcare providers with older patient administration systems to start offering date and time slots to the central Choose and Book service and take bookings by return. The system could help trusts break through the barriers […]
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U-turn on whether health info sites beneficial
The authors of a study that concluded information websites for patient with long-term conditions were detrimental to health have retracted their findings, saying that interactive health communication applications (IHACs) benefit people with chronic illnesses. The new study, published in the Cochrane Review today, says users with diabetes or other long-term conditions can feel positive effects from using […]
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