Probe into lost appointment bookings at Barts
More than 400 patients have had to wait more than 13 weeks, after details of 2,000 telephone bookings were left unprocesed on a spreadsheet.
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Black attacks Choose and Book
Choose and Book has reduced healthcare to a factory production line that is detrimental to patient care, the president of the Royal College of Surgeons has claimed. John Black said the traditional system meant patients were referred from their GP to a single consultant, who would then oversee the whole process of care from initial consultation to […]
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NHS Direct’s 68 revenue sharing numbers
NHS Direct has almost 70 revenue-sharing telephone lines in addition to the 0845 number for its health advice line, a Freedom of Information Act request has revealed. David Hickson, a campaigner against use of revenue-sharing numbers, submitted an FoI request in October and has received a list of 68 0845 numbers used by NHS Direct, […]
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Quiz of the Year
That was the year in primary care IT
Review calls for shake-up of pathology
The Department of Health should put in place IT connectivity for NHS pathology services as a matter of priority, a two-year review has concluded. The review of pathology services, chaired by Lord Carter of Coles, calls for DH electronic order communications pilots for primary care to be rolled out as soon as possible and suggests […]
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New guidance on named consultant referrals
Named consultant referrals should be available through Choose and Book wherever possible, NHS Connecting for Health has told hospitals. Revised guidance on making named clinician referrals using the e-booking system says “occasionally” there are genuine clinical reasons for such a referral. These include referral to a consultant who is known to have a particular interest, […]
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Choose and Book slot availability improves
Problems with slot availability on Choose and Book are beginning to fall, with availability issues affecting between 12% and 13% of patients, compared with 20% three months ago, according to the e-booking team. Dr Stephen Miller, national medical director for Choose and Book, said slot availability issues have fallen over recent weeks but work still […]
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Vision 4 looks further off
Delivery of the new clinical system Vision 4 from GP system supplier INPS could be moved back to 2011. The latest update on suppliers’ planned release dates for NHS Connecting for Health applications shows that Vision 4 is being replanned; although the company’s hosted version of its Vision 3 system has become the first hosted […]
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Choose and Book record for daily bookings
A record number of daily bookings were made through Choose and Book following its latest upgrade, NHS Connecting for Health has announced. The IT agency says Choose and Book 4.1 was implemented on 18 October and 28,107 bookings were made on the next week day. The upgrade includes improvements to rejected bookings, work lists and reports plus changes to […]
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