PACS group demands action on NHS Number
Why isn’t it compulsory to use the NHS Number as the primary identifier for patients in England, just as the CHI number is compulsory in Scotland? NHS Connecting for Health was asked last week. The question sparked a lively debate at the Royal College of Radiologists PACS and Teleradiology group meeting in London. Colin Innes […]
News
E-Health Insider’s industry round up 19.03.09
This month’s E-Health Insider industry round-up covers new products, system deployments and other developments at leading healthcare IT suppliers. SpeechMagic rolled out at HCA International Nuance Communications has announced that its SpeechMagic technology is being rolled out across the private healthcare group, HCA International. With two-thirds of the roll-out complete, 96% of dictations are being […]
News
Hi-tech features in 150th CMO report
The chief medical officer’s annual report has highlighted the need for surgeons to be trained using simulation techniques. The report, published by Professor Sir Liam Donaldson yesterday, devotes a chapter to simulation and says that surgeons trained using simulation methods make fewer errors and carry out technically more exact procedures. However, it says that although […]
News
Report shows flaws in safety reporting
Trusts are failing to report patient safety incidents and to review their policies in response to known problems, a report has shown. The report published by the Healthcare Commission on improving patient safety in the NHS says that levels of incident reporting within many trusts are inadequate. It says “incidents are not being reported effectively” […]
News
Trust incident reports published
The National Patient Safety Agency has started to publish patient safety incident reports from every NHS trust and local health board in England and Wales. It says the reports will create greater transparency within the NHS by allowing managers and patients to see how many incidents occur over a six month period, what kind of […]
News
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 […]
News
No routine use of SCR at Bolton A+E
Royal Bolton Hospital’s A&E department is viewing the Summary Care Record on a doctor-request basis only, according to an NHS Connecting for Health benefits assessment.
News
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 […]
News
Follow my leader
In the latest feature from NHS Connecting for Health, Dr Raj Kumar and Dr Andrew Coley discuss the NHS Clinical Leaders Network.
Feature
Wales to stamp out medical scrawl
Doctors and nurses in Wales are going to have to use stamps as well as their signature in a bid to combat illegible scrawled signatures on patient notes. The initiative is being introduced because some clinicians signatures are not legible. The stamp will be used along with signatures. Dr Andrew Dearden of the BMA said […]
News