Mandatory incident reporting considered
The House of Commons Health Committee is looking at whether the national reporting of patient safety incidents should be made mandatory, as part of its investigation into patient safety. The present National Patient Safety Agency reporting system relies on trusts owning up to their mistakes through a voluntary system. But a recent Healthcare Commission report […]
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MPs demand action on health inequalities
Better data to inform resource allocation and more evaluation of government policies are needed to tackle the widening gap in health inequalities, MPs have concluded. A report on health inequalities from the House of Commons Health Committee also recommends that the Quality and Outcomes Framework that GPs work to should be subject to radical revision. […]
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QoF should tackle health inequalities – MPs
The Quality and Outcomes Framework needs radical revision to fully take account of health inequalities, according to MPs. A report on health inequalities from the House of Commons Health Committee recommends that tackling health inequalities should be an explicit objective during annual QoF negotiations. It says this objective should also have measurable characteristics which could […]
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NPSA Never Events policy welcomed
A company making IT systems to prevent wrong-site surgery has welcomed the launch of a national patient safety policy focusing on eight types of incident that can easily be prevented. Jeremy Turbervill, head of sales for Safe Patient Systems, said it was pleased the National Patient Safety Agency had issued the Never Events policy, which […]
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UK Lords welcomes cross-border health
The United Kingdom’s House of Lords has welcomed a proposal from the European Commission for a Directive on patients’ rights to cross-border healthcare. The Lord’s EU Committee said that information was key to enabling cross-border healthcare to work effectively for EU citizens. However, the upper chamber of the House of Commons said that due to […]
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NHS boss flew to India to check iSoft progress
David Nicholson has continued to take a hands-on role in the multi-billion pound NHS IT programme, flying to India to meet one of the companies developing its key electronic patient record software.
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Choose and Book contract extended
The Department of Health has signed a two year extension with Atos Healthcare for the national Choose and Book contract. The deal extends the initial £64.5m five year national contract signed with Schlumberger-Sema (since taken over by Atos Origin) in 2003, and later expanded. DH figures show that £103m had been spent on the contract by […]
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Little local difficulties with C+B
Health minister Ben Bradshaw has told MPs that local implementation issues are at the root of most complaints about Choose and Book. Bradshaw told a House of Commons debate about the electronic booking system that useage was growing, with 57% of bookings made through Choose and Book in January and more than 30,000 bookings made […]
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BMA calls for exemption on data sharing
The BMA is calling for confidential health information to be exempt from new government legislation which will allow sharing of personal data across Whitehall departments.
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Royal Free evaluates Cerner fixes
The Royal Free Hampstead NHS Trust is evaluating the results of the three month rescue programme to fix known problems in its Cerner Millennium system. Trust board papers state that on 6 October, BT, the local service provider for London, together with the London Programme for IT and the trust, began a 90-day programme of […]
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