Choose and Book ‘will be a year late’
The flagship Choose and Book electronic booking application will be at least a year late by the time it is rolled out across England NHS chief executive, Sir Nigel Crisp, said yesterday. Speaking to the House of Commons public accounts committee (PAC) he said that patients would still be offered a choice of four or […]
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Trials of ‘summary spine record’ to begin in 2006
Summaries of GP records from a small number of practices are to be loaded onto the NHS spine from August 2006 as part of a new evolutionary ‘pilot’, intended to test the basic concepts around shared summary care records. The strategy, set out in a consultative document published today, indicates a far more gradual approach […]
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Suppliers advised to develop standalone software
Connecting for Health (CfH) has confirmed that it is advising its suppliers to develop standalone versions of their applications, not reliant on the NHS Spine, in order to prevent further implementation delays. A CfH spokesperson told E-Health Insider that the spine remained an "important component of the strategy that the National Programme for IT is […]
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Data quality vital to electronic transfer of prescriptions
Keighley, the first pilot site for electronic transfer of prescriptions (ETP), has found that before new national systems can be used, staff must first fully reconcile any discrepancies between patient details from the local practice system and the patient demographic details held on the NHS Spine. Being first to implement ETP meant Keighley had to […]
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First NPfIT deployment plans released
The £6.2 billion National Programme for IT (NPfIT) has published a summary of its deployment plans for the first time, indicating what new IT systems are intended to be deployed to NHS organisations and by when, writes Jon Hoeksma. According to the plan, which is available here, deployment of hospital administration and clinical systems will begin […]
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NAO finds Choose and Book running late
Technical problems, delays in delivering upgrades and failure to engage GPs means the roll-out of Choose and Book, the national electronic appointment booking system, is behind schedule and, at best, will only offer 60-70% availability by the end of 2005. As a result the Government target to deliver patient choice by the end of the […]
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Trusts refuse to pay suppliers’ legacy upgrade costs
The National Programme for IT’s policy on legacy systems is causing confusion among trusts and suppliers over who should pay the costs of upgrading systems to enable them to communicate with the spine. Evidence seen by E-Health Insider indicates that most NHS trusts are unwilling to collaboratively fund suppliers upgrade costs – an approach […]
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