DH and London move on shared services
NHS chief executive David Nicholson is encouraging the health service to make greater use of shared services as London’s primary care trusts prepare to set up their own commissioning support organisation. Nicholson wrote to trust chief executives last week to encourage them to use NHS Shared Business Services or other shared services for back-office functions. […]
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Experience information deficit must be overcome
A steering group focused on harnessing the power of public opinion has found that many NHS boards do not have a systematic approach to using patient experience information, hence creating an information deficit, which must be overcome. In a research report, developed by senior health officials form the NHS and professional medical bodies, the steering […]
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DH to award £80m contract for NHS Choices
The Department of Health has gone out to tender to find a new supplier to run the NHS Choices patient information website, in a lucrative three year deal initially worth £60-80m. The chosen supplier will be expected to generate in excess of 20m hits to the NHS Choices website, together with generating significant revenue from […]
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Overseas data work under review, say reports
The government is reportedly reviewing whether sensitive information about NHS patients could be sent overseas for processing. A leaked internal NHS Connecting for Health (CfH) document, published by Computer Weekly magazine, reveals a review is under way into whether patient data could be processed by “approved organisations” abroad. The DH said in a statement on […]
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EHI’s industry news roundup 02.11.07
E-Health Insider’s industry news round up for the week ending 2 November, featuring supplier news, implementations, product launches, awards and events. Supplier News Spire Healthcare take over BUPA hospitals Spire Healthcare, the new independent healthcare group, formerly BUPA hospitals, is planning to grow its business as it builds on its position as a leading player […]
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Granger’s successor remains a mystery
Richard Granger’s successor as chief executive of Connecting for Health and director general of IT at the Department of Health is still unknown, twelve weeks after he announced his resignation in transition from the post. Enquiries from E-Health Insider this week have been unable to clarify when Granger will officially leave CfH, and more intriguingly […]
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McKesson buys Supporta Payroll Services
Healthcare IT systems specialist McKesson, has acquired Supporta Payroll Services in a deal that will allow the company to provide bureau services to new and existing clients to complement its existing HR and payroll capabilities. The new unit, to be known as McKesson HR and Payroll Solutions will build upon the existing shared NHS customer base using […]
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DH extend outsourcing contract with CSC
The Department of Health have agreed a £20m deal with Computer Sciences Corporation to extend their information technology outsourcing contract for an additional two years until 2011. The DH first awarded a seven year £39m contract to CSC for the outsourcing of infrastructure and application support services for around 4500 DH staff in 2002 . […]
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Proper testing needed for reforms, says TUC
A call for public sector changes to be properly tested and for staff to be consulted on and involved in reforms has come from TUC general secretary, Brendan Barber. In a TUC analysis of reforms taking place across the full range of public services, Barber says: "A state of ‘permanent revolution’ in public services is running […]
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Unison condemns offshore medical transcription
NHS trusts that outsource the transcription of medical notes to South Africa, the Philippines and India received a sharp rebuke from health union, Unison, yesterday. General secretary, Dave Prentis, speaking at the union’s annual conference this week, condemned the outsourcing as “a very dangerous practice.” The union has accumulated anecdotal evidence of potentially life-threatening mistakes […]
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