Conservatives to ‘dismantle’ NPfIT
The Conservatives have promised to “dismantle Labour’s central NHS IT infrastructure” and instead move to a choice of local accredited patient record and clinical systems.
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UK telehealth trials missing minorities
Concerns have been raised that the UK’s biggest ever trial of telehealth technologies is excluding non-English speaking people, despite the promises of social inclusion. A conference this week heard that non-English speakers and people without phones are often unable to benefit from the large-scale pilots now being developed. The Department of Health’s Whole System Demonstrator […]
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Burnham wants ‘health service fit for the digital age’
New health secretary Andy Burnham has said that despite the NHS’ coming financial problems, he still wants to see a health service fit for the digital age. Speaking at the NHS Confederation conference in Liverpool this morning, Burnham insisted that the NHS still had space to focus on reshaping its services focus on quality and […]
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Tories promise transparent procurement
Shadow health minister Stephen O’Brien has called more localised and transparent procurement in the NHS and an end to Labour’s “obsession with confidentiality.”
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Mike O’Brien new minister for NHS IT
Mike O’Brien, the MP for North Warwickshire, has become the latest minister to take responsibility for NHS Connecting for Health and NHS IT. O’Brien, a former solicitor general, was minister for pension reform at the Department of Work and Pensions before Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s reshuffle this weekend. He replaces Ben Bradshaw, who left the […]
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SCR access widens again
Community pharmacists, end of life care teams and ambulance staff will gain access to the Summary Care Record in a series of pilot projects over the next few months, NHS Connecting for Health has revealed. The expansion in the types of NHS staff who can access the SCR will be piloted in early adopter primary […]
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That was the year that was…
Touch screens gather patient views
A touch-screen system that allows people to feed back their views on NHS services is being rolled out across North East Essex. The system was trialled at Clacton Hospital. Ten hand-held versions were also given to district nurses. The computerised terminals ask ten core questions about NHS services and then questions about the service patients […]
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Health check highlights record keeping issues
The Healthcare Commission has once again identified record keeping as one of the weakest areas of NHS performance in its annual health check. CO9, which requires organisations to have a “systematic and planned approach to the management of records”, is identified as one of the core standards with the lowest rates of compliance in the […]
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Hospitals to assess satisfaction ‘in real time’
Health secretary Alan Johnson told the Labour Party conference yesterday that he wants to see NHS trusts collecting “immediate feedback” from patients on their experience of care. The Mirror newspaper was briefed that this might mean hospitals giving patients PDAs. However, the Department of Health could only say that trusts might “opt” to use hand-held […]
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