Parliamentary briefing paper sets out challenges for NPfIT
A new parliamentary briefing paper on the National Programme for IT has highlighted stakeholder involvement, communications, "imposing change on a highly devolved NHS", and the complexity of the programme each as potential areas of concern for the success of the project. ‘New NHS IT’ a Parliamentary briefing note prepared by the Parliamentary Office of Science […]
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“NHS Has Not Yet Dreamed of the Things IT Can Do” – Confed Chief
The NHS Confederation annual conference opens in Glasgow next week so E-Health Insider fixed an interview with its chief executive, Dr Gill Morgan, to find out what the nation’s trusts and health authorities think about recent IT developments. We found her upbeat about the possibilities opened up by IT investment, but concerned about the NHS’s […]
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IT Vital to Tackle Health Staff Shortages
A major new US health IT survey suggests that new technology has significant potential to help mitigate the serious staff shortages faced by healthcare providers. The same survey also stressed the importance of re-evaluating workflow to realise the benefits from any IT implementation. Electronic medical records, point of care technologies and mobile and wireless communications […]
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Trusts Must Not Stop Local IT Investment – Lord Hunt
NHS trusts must put sustained local investment into their IT to complement investment from the National IT Programme, health minister Lord Hunt told a London conference this week. He said investment from the National Programme will be made “very much around a condition that the NHS locally invests its resources too.” The changes ahead were […]
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Blair Pledges NHS Broadband Access
Tony Blair has pledged £6bn of public money to deliver high-speed internet access to every school and doctor’s surgery by 2006, as part of a ’21st century revolution’ in the delivery of public services. Speaking at a government conference to discuss its delivery of e-commerce and e-government initiatives, the Prime Minister said £1bn of investment […]
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VHA Signs Agreement with IBM
VHA Inc., a leading US network of community-owned health care systems and physicians, has signed an agreement with IBM to cost effectively centrally procure desktop and notebook computers, servers and workstations to the 2,200 healthcare organisations within VHA. The agreement is intended to help participating organisations improve their overall efficiency, reduce costs and improve work […]
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NHS Direct Needs Greater Focus
A new Public Accounts Committee report on the NHS Direct telephone information service says that callers are currently waiting too long to speak to a nurse, with many patients having to wait up over 20 minutes. The report also says that the service needs to improve response times and review productivity at individual sites to […]
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Health IT Leaders Welcome Wanless
From being strictly a minority interest healthcare Information and Communication technology (ICT) has suddenly moved to centre stage in British politics. According to leading Health IT figures the challenge is to rapidly deliver systems that provide real benefits to patients. Yesterday’s Budget saw the Government stake its future on delivering dramatic improvements in the NHS, […]
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NHS Needs To Double IT Spending – Wanless
A doubling of spending on information and communication technology will be needed to fund ambitious targets set out in the NHS Information Strategy, according to the Wanless Review on healthcare funding commissioned by The Treasury. The report’s author, former NatWest Group chief executive, Derek Wanless, and his review team recommend that the money should be […]
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Enterprise Resource Planning Vital for NHS
The NHS must adopt modern enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems to make better use of its capacity and resources if it is to cope with steadily rising levels of demand, leading IT vendors have warned. Hugo Schellens, general manager of Belgium bookings systems firm Ultragenda, said that the main problem facing the NHS was the […]
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