Minister launches patient ‘guarantee’ on records
The government has published a series of commitments in the form of a guarantee on how nationally held electronic health records will be used. Health minister Lord Warner said that the new rules will ensure patients keep control over access to their health records in the delayed national database of patient records known as the […]
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The virtual patient
Dr Richard Fitton, GP and member of the Care Record Development Board, predicts a future in which patients have control over their own electronic health records.
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Patients to get veto on details recorded to spine
Patients may after all be allowed to decide to withhold sensitive information from the central electronic record system, known as the spine record, being developed by the NHS. At a BMA conference next week Connecting for Health, the agency responsible for delivering new electronic patient record systems, is expected to announce details of a "patient […]
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Wrong prescription in second GPASS record error
A second patient has been given the wrong prescription in a repeat of a printer error at a Glasgow practice which computer suppliers GPASS described as an isolated incident when it first happened. The first error happened in January at the C Wing practice in Woodside Health Centre, Glasgow, when two prescriptions went to be […]
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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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Release QoF data if asked, BMA advises
GPs are being advised to release Quality and Outcomes Framework (QoF) data before national figures are published if their practices are asked to do so under the Freedom of Information Act. The British Medical Association’s General Practitioner Committee (GPC) has released new guidance (www.bma.org.uk/ap.nsf/Content/freedomfaqs) about the Freedom of Information which advises practices to be open […]
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FOI challenge on QoF data
The owner of an online information service is challenging a decision to hold back publication of Quality and Outcomes Framework (QoF) data until August. Gordon Blackwell, owner of the National Health Intelligence Service told EHI Primary Care: “I don’t think they have any right to deny me access to that information. Section 22 of the […]
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QoF results publication likely in next two months
Quality and Outcomes Framework results for every practice in England and Scotland are likely to be published on government websites within the next two months, according to the organisations responsible for coordinating the data. An official from the Health and Social Care Information Centre in England, the body that will hold all Quality and Outcomes […]
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Evercare pilots highlight need for better data
Case management will not get off the ground unless PCTs, acute trusts and GPs improve their data management and quality, a report for the Department of Health has shown. The report by UnitedHealth Europe assessing its nine Evercare pilot sites funded by the DH last year uncovered significant issues with data quality and access to […]
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Limited public access to cardiac surgery data agreed
The Central Cardiac Audit Database is to have a public portal allowing access to selected cardiac surgery mortality data. The Healthcare Commission, Department of Health and Society of Cardiothoracic Surgeons have reached an ‘agreement in principle’ to allow the public limited access to what has up to now been a closed system. The move comes […]
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