Burns steps down as NPfIT implementation lead
Alan Burns, the chief executive of Trent strategic health authority, has stood down as the implementation lead for the NHS National Programme for IT (NPfIT) just six months after being appointed. He is the latest in a series of senior experienced NHS leaders and clinicians at the top of the programme to have left early […]
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GPs ‘over-perform’ on QoF by £200m
Payments to GPs under the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QoF) of the new GMS contract look certain to massively exceed the original sums budgeted by the Department of Health. Dr Ian Trimble, a Nottingham GP, advisor to the Department of Health and one of the architects of QoF performance management framework for general practice, said […]
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Data quality vital to electronic transfer of prescriptions
Keighley, the first pilot site for electronic transfer of prescriptions (ETP), has found that before new national systems can be used, staff must first fully reconcile any discrepancies between patient details from the local practice system and the patient demographic details held on the NHS Spine. Being first to implement ETP meant Keighley had to […]
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iSOFT unveils Lorenzo demo
iSOFT have released a Flash demo of their enterprise-wide clinical and administrative application Lorenzo on their website, and is asking for feedback from users. The demo, which is not fully functional but aims to guide users through some of the most important aspects of the system, was uploaded to iSOFT’s website with little fanfare at […]
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300 practices’ QoF results online at GP’s site
Quality and Outcomes Framework (QoF) results for nearly 300 practices have been put online by a GP who plans to include data for every practice in the UK as figures are released. Dr Gavin Jamie, a GP in Swindon, Wiltshire, has set up his website, www.gpcontract.co.uk, with the figures that have so far been supplied by […]
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Patient information site rivals NHS Direct Online
Patient information website patient.co.uk has claimed that it is now as popular as NHS Direct Online, with just under 1.2m visitors received last month. The site, maintained by husband and wife team Dr Tim and Beverley Kenny, contains the same patient information leaflets that health professionals give to patients about any conditions that they are diagnosed with, […]
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National US personal health record launched
Medem, a not-for-profit company created by leading US medical societies including the American Medical Association, announced this week the national launch of an internet-based ‘personal health record’, that is intended to become the "ATM service for healthcare". The new freely available internet-based personal health record, iHealthRecord, will allow patients to easily access and organise their […]
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Hardware upgrades may swallow Choose and Book money
Incentive money for Choose and Book may be spent on upgrading hardware to allow e-booking to work, as primary care trusts face bills of hundreds of thousands of pounds to bring systems up to scratch. Newcastle PCT estimates that it will have to replace around 400 PCs, while other PCTs say that more than half the […]
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Public sector contractor rates rise by a third
A survey of IT professionals across the UK has revealed that hourly pay for government IT contractors have risen by 33%, whereas those who work in the health and pharmaceutical sector had below-average increases of 5%. IT professionals who described themselves as working in healthcare had a pay rise from a median of £34/hr at […]
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GP says clinical consultation not delivering
A GP involved in advising Connecting for Health has claimed the programme is being mismanaged with professional input ignored and that the Choose and Book software is potentially dangerous. Dr Nigel de Kare Silver, a GP in Neasden, north London, and IT lead for Brent Primary Care Trust, has outlined his concerns in an article […]
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