Cloudy outlook on government ICT
The Cabinet Office has published a ten year strategy for government ICT that emphasises the use of cloud computing and greater standardisation across the public sector.
News
BMA wants tech to save boundaries
The introduction of videophones and webcams in GP surgeries would be a better way of improving patient access than scrapping practice boundaries, according to the British Medical Association. The doctors’ union has recommended a series of local solutions plus changes to the national ‘temporary resident’ system as an alternative to government plans to remove practice […]
News
CfH gives go-ahead for IE7
NHS Connecting for Health has said organisations still using Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 should move to IE7, following security concerns about the older browser. The Department of Health signed a national licensing deal with Microsoft in October 2001 that lead to the majority of NHS trusts using IE 6 for internet and intranet access. In […]
News
Do more, with less
Department of Health policy and informatics guidance lays bare the scale of the challenge facing the NHS as the credit crunch bites. Lyn Whitfield works her way through 140 pages of policy documents and plans.
Feature
One in ten child prescriptions wrong
More than one in ten prescriptions given to children in hospitals contain errors and almost a fifth of drugs are incorrectly administered, according to a newly published study by the University of London. The study is believed to be the largest of its kind in the UK and reports far higher error rates than previous […]
News
Swindells: Don’t compromise NPfIT vision
Prolonged contract renegotiations with local service providers risk compromising the central vision of the National Programme for IT in the NHS, the Department of Health’s former acting chief information officer has warned. Matthew Swindells, who led a review of NHS informatics before leaving the DH to head up Tribal Group’s healthcare practice, told E-Health Insider […]
News
EHI interview: Matthew Swindells
Jon Hoeksma talks to the new chair of BCS Health about the past and future of the National Programme for IT in the NHS.
Feature
Broadband fund ‘will boost telehealth’
The government has identified telehealth services as one of the main beneficiaries of its plans to invest £1 billion in super-fast broadband. Business secretary Lord Mandelson last week announced a consultation on how the government’s proposed £1b Next Generation Fund should be spent. The government said the fund would provide the UK with a world […]
News