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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Patients need access to electronic records, say academics
Patients can and should have access to their electronic health records, in order to keep them up-to-date and accurate, a year-long study from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) has found. The study, prepared by Claire Harris and Ruth Boaden on behalf of UMIST’s Health Organisations Research Centre, suggests that the […]
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ASSIST attacks GP boycott of electronic records
The chairman of the Association for ICT Professionals in Health and Social Care (ASSIST) has condemned GPs for voting not to co-operate with the Care Records System to be implemented by the National Programme for IT (NPfIT). Andrew Haw said: “It is a shame that, instead of putting barriers in the way of progress, the GPs could […]
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GPs attack lack of consultation over electronic records
GPs at the British Medical Association’s conference of local medical committees last week slammed the National Programme for IT’s (NPfIT) plans for national electronic care records, passing votes of no confidence in their ability to improve patient care and resolving to “not engage with the Care Record Service" until their concerns are answered. Dr Lucy Henshaw, the representative from Suffolk […]
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XML records improve diabetes care in Salford
Salford PCT has introduced an XML-based electronic diabetes care record system, allowing patients and health professionals alike full and easy access to information about their condition and treatment. The record data is sourced from GP and Acute clinical systems operated by EMIS, In Practice Systems and iSOFT, and is stored on a central repository in […]
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Doctors to vote on national patient record system consent
Doctors attending next week’s British Medical Association Local Medical Committee conference are to vote on whether patients’ records should be automatically loaded onto the NHS national data spine of records, even if they have not given their consent for their records to be shared. Concerns about consent are at the centre of a series of […]
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Leaked report criticises NPfIT implementation
A leaked report by the National Programme for IT’s former chief clinical adviser has exposed fault lines at the highest levels of the leadership of the national programme and serious disagreements about the way the programme is being implemented and its lack of engagement with clinicians. According to a report in today’s Financial Times, in […]
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Communications boss appointed by national programme
The National Programme for IT finally has a communications director, after an on-off-on search that began early last year. The new post has been taken up this month by James Herbert, previously a former army officer, BBC broadcast journalist and ex-head of global media relations with oil giant Shell. Commenting on the challenge Herbert […]
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Big Brother alive and well at Heathcare Computing
E-Health Insider comment from Jon Hoeksma “I just had a call from the National Programme [for IT] on what I could say. I looked at my notes and realised I couldn’t say anything.” This was the quote from the Healthcare Computing 2004 conference that perhaps best summed up the national programme’s very strange approach to […]
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Granger promises to make PACS ‘deployable’
A promise to deliver at least 50% cuts in the pricing of Picture Archiving and Storage Systems (PACS) and make it a “deployable technology” came from NHS IT Director General Richard Granger in his address to Healthcare Computing 2004. Local Service Providers (LSPs) are due to submit their latest proposals on how they would deliver Picture […]
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