Widely-tipped Accenture wins North-east
Consulting, technology services and outsourcing specialists, Accenture, were widely tipped to win the local service provider contract for the North-east, Yorkshire and Humber region – and were duly appointed to take on the work today. Commenting on the £1.099 billion, 10 year contract award, Ian Watmore, UK managing director, said: “We are very proud to have […]
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Torex Acquires Australian Supplier of Clinical Trauma Systems
Torex PLC has announced that it is to acquire Australian specialist health IT supplier HAS Solutions Pty Ltd. (HASS), a supplier of operating theatre and clinical trauma systems, for (AU) $28 million. The deal follows the acquisition in August of the operating theatre management and anaesthesia systems business from Civica Plc. Torex itself is currently involved […]
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NHS IT Investment Still Being Diverted
A new report by the Audit Commission concludes that more than half of all NHS trusts in England have diverted ‘hypothecated’ investment money away from projects such as new computer systems, to meet pressing operational requirements and plug financial deficits. While painting a fairly upbeat picture of progress to date towards NHS modernisation objectives the […]
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NHS Direct “Will More than Double” by 2006
NHS Direct is set to more than double in size, handling 16 million calls by 2006. The service is also due to launch a personal health organiser on its Internet service, NHS Direct Online, to enable members of the public to store key health information. Announcing the plans, health minister, John Hutton, said, “NHS Direct […]
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Scottish Ambulance Plans to Network Vehicles
Scottish Ambulance plans to put networked computers in all of its emergency vehicles to provide crews with better information en route to emergency incidents in an investment project worth up to £6m. The multimillion project, which would cover the whole of Scotland, is designed to cut response times, improve communications with hospital casualty departments and […]
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Blair Pledges NHS Broadband Access
Tony Blair has pledged £6bn of public money to deliver high-speed internet access to every school and doctor’s surgery by 2006, as part of a ’21st century revolution’ in the delivery of public services. Speaking at a government conference to discuss its delivery of e-commerce and e-government initiatives, the Prime Minister said £1bn of investment […]
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NHS Information Charter Needed Says Consumers Association
The NHS should publish a charter outlining how it will share health information and service users must be given a chance to isolate and control access to the most sensitive details, according to new research on public attitudes to electronic records. The research, conducted by the Consumers Association and the NHS Information Authority, found that […]
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Couch Potatoes Called to Account
Researchers have reported that nagging overweight patients with an automated phone call system, encouraging them to eat less and take more exercise, can have a positive effect. A project by the Centre for the Advancement of Health in Washington DC, involved almost 300 people with sedentary lifestyles and unhealthy diets. The study found that instead […]
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NHS Direct Needs Greater Focus
A new Public Accounts Committee report on the NHS Direct telephone information service says that callers are currently waiting too long to speak to a nurse, with many patients having to wait up over 20 minutes. The report also says that the service needs to improve response times and review productivity at individual sites to […]
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Surrey Ambulance Signs PPP on IT System
Surrey Ambulance has announced the signing of a public-private partnership (PPP) agreement with Premier Computer Solutions for a range of electronic capacity management systems (eCMS). The eCMS system can be used to route emergency 999 call patients to the hospital site that is most able to deal with their condition at the time at the […]
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