BT to Deliver the Technology for Scotland’s NHS 24
NHS 24, the Scottish version of NHS Direct, has placed a £20.5m contract with BT to provide the telephone communications systems that will underpin the new service and integrate it with electronic patient records. Under the ten-year partnership deal BT will deliver the managed network and IT services that will allow everyone in Scotland to […]
News
Software Package Aims to Beat the Blues
The Priory Hospital North London is to trial an innovative PC-based multi-media tool called ‘Beating the Blues’ to help patients overcome depression and anxiety. The PC tool will be used together with face-to-face counselling and psychotherapy and is claimed to be able to help patients with or without the use of anti-depressant drugs. According to […]
News
Primary Care Organisations at Crossroads on IT
New guidance on information and information systems for primary care organisations produced by the Primary Care Information Modernisation Programme (PCIMP) concludes that the NHS stands at a crossroads in the development of primary and community care information systems The guidance, read alongside a newly published review of the primary care clinical systems market carried out […]
News
Report Says NHS Likely to Miss EPR Targets
A key report published one year on from the NHS IT strategy update ‘Building the Information Core’ warns that almost all NHS health communities have serious doubts whether they can meet the targets on delivering Electronic Patient Records (EPR) and says many other targets now seem ambitious. In its first annual report on the service’s […]
News
Videophones to Link Deaf, Interpreters and Health Professionals
A new remote sign language interpretation service which uses a network of videophones to provide interpretation services in consultations between health professionals and deaf people, has been launched by the Leicester Centre for Deaf People. The telecare initiative, backed by Leicestershire Health Authority, is the first such videophone sign translation service to be provided by […]
News
Boxing Day Busiest Ever Day for NHS Direct
NHS Direct, the UK national telephone health advice service, had its busiest ever day on Boxing Bay, as the holiday season took its toll. The top enquiries were for vomiting, fever, coughs and diarrhoea. According to figures reported by the Guardian, the 24-hour nurse-led advice service took more than 24,000 calls on Boxing Day – […]
News
2001: The Year the Money Disappeared
The NHS has stood at the cusp in 2001, its stark failures were laid bare by the Bristol Royal Infirmary Inquiry and Shipman reports, and yet it was also the year in which a re-elected Labour Government pledged unprecedented investment in the service. Though the IT agenda has attracted few headlines, it has permeated both […]
News
Smart Specimen Bag Launched
A new version of the humble pathology specimen bag that can integrate test request information with the electronic patient record is being piloted at NHS hospitals around the country. Speci-Sak II, made by MailmateSPS, is a plain specimen request form with a bag attached which goes through a specially adapted laser printer. Information recorded on […]
News
GSK launch Respiratory Channel with Doctors.net.uk
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is to support the launch of an online respiratory channel for chest medicine specialists and GPs on Doctors.net.uk, the UK doctor-only online community. The new channel has been developed to provide doctors with interactive information on respiratory medicine. The channel will host a number of online resources, including eContinuing Medical Education, online conferencing […]
News
NHS Hits Practice E-mail Connectivity Target
The NHSIA has released the latest figures on levels of connection to NHSnet indicating that the national target to ensure 95% of GP practices have e-mail systems in place by March 2001 has already been achieved. According to new NHSIA figures by 24 October 2001 some 8495 (97%) of GP practices had an NHSnet line […]
News