System C sites have started to submit data to Emergency Care Data Set
System C’s acute hospital sites have begun to submit data to the new national Emergency Care Data Set (ECDS), which is is designed to provide a more complete picture of emergency attendances at England’s hospitals.
Clinical Software 3
Predictive risk tool for West Midlands
New technology developed by Bupa Health Dialog will be used to help GPs in the West Midlands to predict the future healthcare needs of their population.
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NHS Wiltshire buys Tunstall for COPD
Telecare and telehealth technology provider Tunstall has announced that NHS Wiltshire has bought its next generation suite of telehealth solutions. The company said NHS Wiltshire will initially use its Integrated Care Platform to deliver care to patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, with a view to rolling it out to patients with other long term […]
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GP plans nursing home access to records
A GP is to explore giving nursing home staff electronic access to patient records in a move he claims could save the NHS millions of pounds. Dr Amir Hannan, a GP in Hyde Cheshire who has pioneered patient access to records, has launched a project to enable a local nursing home to access patient records, […]
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Lower borrowing, more savings in Budget
Chancellor Alistair Darling has confirmed that government borrowing will be lower than predicted in last year’s Pre-Budget Report, while committing the public sector to making "challenging" savings. Speaking in the House of Commons at lunchtime, Darling said that borrowing would be £167 billion in the coming financial year, rather than the £178 billion predicted in […]
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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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Telecare delivers savings in Scotland
Telecare in Scotland has delivered savings of more than £11m and is improving health and social care delivery and quality of life for users, according to an evaluation report. The report on Scotland’s Telecare Development Programme concludes that it has delivered savings of £11.15m in 2007-08, based on 7,902 people receiving telecare equipment. It estimates […]
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Welsh e-referral plans and controversy
Wales is due to launch its own electronic referral system in the summer, with a version of the clinical communications system used in Scotland. Informing Healthcare told EHI Primary Care that electronic referrals and clinical communications between GPs and secondary care will be managed through the Wales Clinical Communications Gateway. The system is a version […]
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Reducing admissions with telehealth
Helen Rollings, community matron at Swindon PCT, explains the trust’s decision to mainstream its telehealth service.
Feature
Automated COPD warnings cut hospital admissions
An automated telephone alert system to warn people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) about forthcoming bad weather has cut emergency hospital admissions by more than a fifth, according to the Met Office. Healthy Outlook, the health forecasting service provided by the Met Office, was used to alert more than 8,000 patients from 189 GP […]
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