NHS Direct Wales ‘needs new direction’
NHS Direct Wales provides a valuable service but needs to be better integrated into the wider unscheduled care system, according to the Welsh Audit Office. A report from the Auditor General found that the health helpline is viewed as something separate to the unscheduled care system, instead of as a core part of it. It […]
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Arctic blast
A think-tank recently ranked its funding forecasts for the NHS from ‘tepid’ to ‘arctic.’ Sarah Bruce asks what that will mean for healthcare IT.
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Setting records straight
Peter Short, national clinical lead GP, NHS Connecting for Health, discusses the recent Shared Record Professional Guidance.
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Microsoft asks NHS what next for its EwA
Microsoft is running a consultation to ask NHS IT professionals what they want to see in a future Enterprise wide Agreement between the NHS and the company.
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Seven win £20m digital dictation deals
Seven suppliers of digital dictation, voice recognition and outsource transcription software have been awarded a framework contract covering the supply and deliver of systems to more than 200 NHS trusts across the country
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In defence of the Spine
Ewan Davis surprises himself by setting out the case in defence of the NHS Spine. He argues that if we didn’t have it, we’d have to invent it.
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NHS IOW cuts costs with ScriptSwitch
NHS Isle of Wight says it has cut its prescribing costs to more than 9% below the national average through the use of the ScriptSwitch prescribing advice tool. ScriptSwitch was installed in all the practices on the island in 2007. The primary care trust estimates annual prescribing spend is now £3m-£5m lower than if no action […]
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Funding forecast is colder than ever
The NHS would have to make historically unprecedented productivity gains to close the gap between its likely funding after 2011 and the Wanless projections of its future spending needs. According to a report by the King’s Fund and the Institute for Fiscal Studies, the health service would need to make gains of between 3.4% and […]
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Lord Darzi quits government
Lord Darzi is to resign as a health minister but to retain a role as a government advisor. Downing Street said he wanted to give up his ministerial duties to spend more time "on his clinical role and academic research". Lord Darzi was one of a number of non-politicians brought into government by Gordon Brown […]
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King’s picks McKesson whiteboard system
One of London’s largest hospital trusts is to scrap its manual whiteboards and install a real time room and patient visibility system from McKesson. King’s College London Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is to install McKesson’s Horizon Enterprise Visibility, a visual control system designed specifically for hospitals, as part of its Releasing Time to Care: The […]
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