No single opt-out on medical records database
Patients will be unable to make a single request for their records not to be held on the NHS Care Records Service. Instead they will have to ask their details are not recorded onto the national medical records database each time they deal with the health service. Any patient who does not want their medical […]
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National rate NHS phone numbers to be banned by April
The Department of Health has today confirmed that they will prevent GPs, local surgeries and dentists from using national (0870 or 0871) or premium rate lines and they will expect these to be replaced by ‘lo-call’ rate numbers by April, with payments of £500 per practice on offer to cover lost revenue. According to DH […]
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BMA queries commissioning and e-booking link
The BMA has criticised technical guidance from the Department of Health (DH) which it says explicitly links the uptake of the Choose and Book, the national electronic booking service, to the new system of practice based commissioning. The association says: “The technical guidance explicitly links the controversial Choose and Book electronic referral system with practice […]
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Call for conference to debate privacy issues in e-NHS
Eleven senior BMA committee members have written to the association’s chair of council, Dr Jim Johnson, proposing a special conference to debate issues surrounding privacy, confidentiality and the NHS IT modernisation programme. The letter says: “There is a distinct lack of policy in this area, particularly in relation to the NHS Care Record [NHS CRS] […]
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Practices could get £6,000 for Choose and Book by June
GPs could receive about £6,000 per practice by the end of June this year if their primary care trust meets the Department of Health’s targets for Choose and Book, according to implementation details. Strategic health authority chief executives have been sent more details of the £95 million package which was announced by health secretary John […]
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Doctors’ belief in NHS IT project fading
Doctors’ enthusiasm for the NHS National Programme for IT (NPfIT) has declined sharply over the past 12 months, with the steepest decline occurring among GPs. A tracking survey of 900 hospital doctors and GPs, published today, found there has been a precipitous decline in GPs support for the IT modernisation programme over the past six […]
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Pessimism rife among doctors about NPfIT’s benefits
The latest Medix-UK survey, co-sponsored by E-Health Insider, shows that three years into the NHS National Programme for IT confidence in and enthusiasm for the programme has declined among NHS doctors, with a particularly sharp fall among GPs. Most doctors still believe that the national programme is an important priority for the NHS, though levels […]
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UK doctors could sign off American online drug orders
A Canadian online pharmacies’ lobby has announced that many of its members plan on moving their business to the UK if tough legislation planned by the federal Canadian government outlaws co-signing of medication by doctors without the patients being present. David MacKay, head of the Canadian International Pharmacy Association (CIPA), told the Financial Times that […]
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NPfIT issues rebuttal of EMIS’s claims
The National Programme for IT (NPfIT) has stated that it is ‘concerned’ about statements made by primary care systems supplier EMIS in a bulletin to customers this week entitled ‘The truth about EMIS and the National Programme for IT’. In the response, issued today, the programme refuted EMIS’s claims it has been frozen out of the programme, […]
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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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