Consultation highlights concerns over NCRS ownership
Concerns over who will own the summary record on the spine and how the summary data will be validated are among the issues that have been raised in response to proposals on the content of the NHS Care Record Service (NCRS). More than 80 submissions have been received from professional and patients organisations as well […]
News
Child health and social care data ‘must fit together’
The proposed national child index that will be used to record and share information about the statutory services being used by individual children must be made to fit with the national programme for IT, the government has said. The government response to a consultation on information sharing databases – also known as child indexes – carried […]
News
Fully automated blood transfusion in Oxford
The John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, has now completed a pilot of its fully automated blood transfusion process in five clinical areas that uses fridges unlocked by barcodes printed out from the patient’s bedside. Mike Murphy, professor of blood transfusion medicine at Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust, said the system was already bringing benefits to patient safety: "We […]
News
Almost all NHS staff happy with ECDL
A new British Computer Society survey has found extremely high levels of satisfaction among NHS staff with the European Computer Driving Licence qualification. The BCS survey found that 96% of NHS employees who had taken the ECDL qualification expressed satisfaction with the organisation of the course and the testing criteria. Some 80% of respondents rated the […]
News
Ambulance services get digital radios
The Department of Health has awarded a contract for a new digital radio and communication system for all NHS ambulance trusts in England, which will provide ambulance service staff with better communications, particularly when responding to critical incidents such as the 7 July London bomb attacks. The new digital radio service will replace the existing […]
News
£80m telecare grant to shape new care patterns
An £80m grant to shape new patterns of social care using telecare has been announced by the Department of Health (DH). News of the grant, which will be available to local authorities for investment over two years from April 2006, was accompanied by new guidance on Building telecare in England Liam Byrne, minister for care […]
News
Information systems needed for commissioning
Primary care trusts and practices need to urgently discuss how they can develop information systems to support practice-based commissioning according to the National Association of Primary Care (NAPC). The association has issued a ten step guide to practice based commissioning which underlines the need for practices and PCTs to have timely data on a very […]
News
Go live for indirectly bookable services
Wandsworth and Tower Hamlets PCTs in London have gone live with indirectly bookable services (IBS) – the system that enables acute trusts with patient administration systems not compliant with Choose and Book to use to make electronic bookings. IBS was released as part of Version 2.1 of Choose and Book at the end of May. Wandsworth […]
News
IPPR calls for electronic health record education
The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) has called for the introduction of IT training for socially excluded sections of the population so that everybody has the ability to access and update their own electronic health records. The study, ‘Modernising with Purpose: A Manifesto for Digital Britain’, advocates using the SureStart programme, the government-operated […]
News
CliniSys acquires European LIMS leader
Pathology software solutions provider, CliniSys, has acquired MIPS, one of the largest and most successful suppliers of laboratory information management systems (LIMS) in mainland Europe. MIPS dominates the market in Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands and has made inroads into the French, German and Spanish markets in the past three to four years. CliniSys say […]
News