Choice? What choice?
Over a year since the announcement of GP system choice, many practices still only have one package to choose from. Fiona Barr investigates.
Feature
N3 connections needed say community pharmacists
Lack of access to smartcards and the N3 network by community pharmacists is jeopardising the roll out of the electronic prescribing service (EPS) and important elements of the new pharmacy contract, according to the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC). But NHS Connecting for Health has rejected the claim, saying that the EPS is rolling out […]
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Choose and Book ‘will be a year late’
The flagship Choose and Book electronic booking application will be at least a year late by the time it is rolled out across England NHS chief executive, Sir Nigel Crisp, said yesterday. Speaking to the House of Commons public accounts committee (PAC) he said that patients would still be offered a choice of four or […]
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Loophole could force release of deceased’s records
A loophole in the Data Protection Act means GPs could be forced to disclose the records of deceased patients, GP representatives are warning. The British Medical Association’s General Practitioner Committee reported after its monthly meeting last week that there are problems with how the Data Protection Act applies to deceased patients which means their records […]
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Every PCT to miss Choose and Book target
The Department of Health (DH) has admitted that not a single primary care trust in England is likely to be in a position to meet its next Choose and Book target and is relying on paper solutions to deliver its flagship policy on choice at referral. Just over 6,000 bookings have been made through Choose […]
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Consultation highlights concerns over NCRS ownership
Concerns over who will own the summary record on the spine and how the summary data will be validated are among the issues that have been raised in response to proposals on the content of the NHS Care Record Service (NCRS). More than 80 submissions have been received from professional and patients organisations as well […]
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Paper records only opt-out available to patients
The government’s policy allowing patients to opt out of the NHS Care Records Service is based on the decision that patients who do so will not be able to have any computerised records at all, according to the GP who was at the heart of national publicity about the issue last week. Dr Paul Thornton, […]
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Emergency care summary set to rollout in Scotland
A project which allows out-of-hours services access to an emergency care summary of patients’ GP records is likely to be rolled out across Scotland. The Emergency Care Summary project has been piloted in two health boards, Ayrshire and Arran and Grampian, since late last year and an evaluation report to be published shortly is expected […]
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No single opt-out on medical records database
Patients will be unable to make a single request for their records not to be held on the NHS Care Records Service. Instead they will have to ask their details are not recorded onto the national medical records database each time they deal with the health service. Any patient who does not want their medical […]
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MPs told ETP plans may jeopardise patient choice
Pharmacist representatives have told MPs that plans to allow GPs and other prescribers to nominate a patient’s pharmacy for electronic transmission of prescriptions (ETP) will jeopardise patient choice. The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) is lobbying the Department of Health and the National Programme for IT (NPfIT) to change the system so that choice of […]
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