Major ministerial reshuffle for health
John Hutton, the health minister whose responsibilities included NHS IT, has been promoted in the post-election reshuffle. He enters the new cabinet as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, the formal title for the minister for the Cabinet Office. He will head up the department where the government’s chief information officer, Ian Watmore, works monitoring […]
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E-Health Innovation awards honour primary care
Primary care IT developments were well represented among the winners of the first E-Health Innovation Awards 2005. Projects that help diabetic patients, support and improve the allied health professions’ community services and streamline booking for GP appointments were among the winners who stepped up to receive their trophies. The awards, organised by Intellect and E-Health […]
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‘Connect with GPs’ call for IT modernisers
A GP magazine has called on Connecting for Health (formerly the National Programme for IT) to connect with its readers following a survey of NHS IT modernisation. Pulse magazine says respondents to its Agenda 2005 survey condemned the government’s "entire approach to IT." It says half of 1003 respondents felt the government’s IT policy ‘badly’ […]
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Choose and Book need not stop PBC, say GPC
Concern over Choose and Book should not prevent GPs from getting involved with practice based commissioning, the British Medical Association’s General Practitioner Committee (GPC) has said. The GPC has issued new guidance on practice based commissioning (PBC) in which it says that despite some recently introduced disincentives, including Choose and Book, it believes there are […]
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Northern Ireland announces new health IT strategy
Northern Ireland has announced plans to develop its own electronic care record in a move which has led to calls for a UK-wide IT programme. The ten year plan for health and social services information technology in Northern Ireland was announced by Angela Smith, Northern Ireland health minister. One of the main objectives of the […]
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Brought to book
GP Mark Davies, clinical lead for the National Programme for IT’s Choose and Book programme, argues the case for Choose and Book and says criticism is unfounded.
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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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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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