Granger: “Fewer than 100” referrals made on ebooking
Richard Granger, Director General of the National Programme for IT, has said that the national programme remains on schedule to help deliver a fully booked NHS by the end of 2005 despite fewer than 100 bookings having yet been made on the Choose and Book electronic appointment booking system. Nevertheless, Granger confirmed that "we […]
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Choose and Book faces potential “show stoppers”
Implementation of Choose and Book (CaB), the national electronic appointment booking service, is experiencing serious teething problems with only a very basic, stand alone “naked" version of the e-booking application used so far. One of the pilot sites in Barnsley is understood to have put a freeze on using the main CaB application due to concerns […]
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EMIS pilots GP booking through digital TV
EMIS has joined up with a South Yorkshire local government digital TV portal to allow patients to book GP appointments through interactive TV. Patients of two GP surgeries in Barnsley can access the booking service, which links up with EMIS Access, through the local government information channel e@sy Connects TV, beamed to around 10,000 households […]
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SMS reminds patients of upcoming appointments
A new system that sends GP appointment reminders to patients over SMS which partially integrates into existing electronic appointment record systems is being piloted in North London. iPlato’s Patient Care Messaging (PCM) system runs over Orange’s gateway services and has a server system hosted in NHSnet. It collates data from each clinical system and then […]
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EMIS rolls out web-based GP appointment booking
EMIS have nationally launched their own online appointment booking service, EMIS Access, which allows patients to send secure messages or book appointments with their GPs over the web. The website www.patient.co.uk links into the EMIS system; however, GPs’ own websites will also be able to interface with the system. Patients will also be able to […]
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E-booking milestone reached
In an exclusive E-Health Insider has learned that the national programme for IT has successfully reached one of its key early milestones, with the first on-line patient appointments of the Choose and Book service made in early adopter sites. Despite well publicised delays to the ‘spine’ project, upon which electronic booking is dependent, the first […]
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NHS Direct web chat feasible but pricey, pilot finds
An NHS Direct Online Clinical Enquiry Service (CES), through which a nurse can discuss symptoms with patients over an web-based chat connection, could be expensive and take up too much time, a report from the Journal of Medical Internet Research shows. The pilot, which took place over six days in a GP’s practice in Coventry, concentrated on non-urgent […]
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WAP can be used for reporting symptoms, study finds
Italian researchers have shown that aftercare and patient communication might be improved if patients are asked to fill in daily questionnaires using WAP on their mobile phones. The research, published in BioMed Central’s journal, found that a Wireless Health Outcomes Monitoring System (WHOMS) greatly increased the flow of information between cancer patients at the Istituto Nazionale Tumori of Milan and […]
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Doubts raised over first NPfIT delivery deadlines
The leak of a confidential BT document, highlighting “material contractual issues", has raised concerns that the first June delivery dates of the National Programme for IT may prove extremely challenging to meet. Phase one, release one of the national programme, which largely focuses on the first phase of the Data Spine and introduction of electronic […]
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Best of European E-Health Announced
The 2004 awards for the best e-health projects in Europe have been announced, with three winners chosen from over 32 projects from across Europe. Sponsored by the European Commission, the eEurope Awards for eHealth were presented at the eHealth Europe Conference, held in Cork, Ireland, on 6 May. The winners were chosen from 32 different finalists […]
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