Mixed results for health websites in accessibility survey
The NHS Direct website is not accessible enough for disabled users and contains too many coding errors, whereas the new DH website has excellent accessibility and speed, a recent survey of government websites has found. The survey, carried out by SiteMorse on behalf of Business2WWW, found that only 0.4% of the pages on www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk fully […]
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Health insurance smart card scheme starts in EU
European Health Insurance Cards (EHIC) are being formally introduced today in 13 EU countries, including Belgium, Ireland, Spain, Estonia and Slovenia. The cards, which will eventually replace paper-based reciprocal health agreement forms such as the E111 and E128, contain a chip holding information that allows connection to a Health Insurance Data Server based in the […]
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NHS Innovation Centre may encourage new technology
A new NHS Innovation Centre may soon be developed to allow health professionals, who have new ideas on how to use technology, better access to business so they can make their inventions a reality. Michael Wilkinson, Assistant Director of Strategy at the Cabinet Office and head of the Health Industry Task Force (HITF), outlined the plan at […]
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NPfIT to review approach to stakeholder engagement
The NHS National Programme for Information Technology (NPfIT) has announced a review of its formal arrangements for engaging the NHS, patients and other stakeholders, in order to support the effective implementation of the NPfIT. As part of this new approach the national programme is to create a new Front Line Support Academy to help NHS […]
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Agency due to lead NHS IT change management scrapped
The Government is to scrap the NHS Modernisation Agency (MA), the agency charged with delivering the change management programme that is meant to accompany the new computer systems to be delivered by the National Programme for IT (NPfIT). The MA, which has 760 staff and a £230 million budget, was meant to be responsible for […]
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E-Health Insider – the first 100 issues
As the E-Health Insider newsletter celebrates the 100th edition, we take the opportunity to look back over highlights of two years coverage of e-health. December 2001 – Tablets within two years In EHI No 1 we reported on a Microsoft-Department of Health conference at which Bill Gates and Alan Milburn set out the vital role of […]
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NHSmail take-up minimal so far
One year on from award of a £90m contract with Electronic Data Systems (EDS), and six months after its launch just 2.3% of NHS staff have signed up to use NHSmail, the new web-based email system for the NHS. According to an internal NHSIA report seen by E-Health Insider 25,074 NHS staff had activated a […]
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NHS to Introduce Own Gateway Reviews
The Department of Health is to introduce its own Gateway Review process to examine major NHS IT and building projects, modelled on the Gateway Review mechanism developed by the Office of Government Commerce (OGC). E-Health Insider understands that the new arrangement, expected to be announced at Public Sector Expo this week, is a compromise, under […]
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Mandatory Shared Financial Services Dropped
Plans to save up to £500m a year in NHS administration costs through the introduction of a next generation standardised NHS-wide finance system are in serious doubt following the Government’s decision not to mandate the adoption of shared financial services. The decision to drop implementation of two central pillars of the shared services initiative coincided […]
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Online Recruitment Plan for NHS in England
Details of the long-delayed project to put NHS jobs in England online have emerged from the Department of Health (DH). A pilot electronic recruitment service is due in summer 2003 and a full-roll out is expected in late 2003 or early 2004. Sites for NHS jobs in Wales and Scotland are already up and running […]
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