SHA sets up data warehouse for PBC
A strategic health authority has set up online access to patient data for its 15 primary care trusts and 330 GP practices to support practice-based commissioning. NHS South Central SHA’s new service, the Thames Valley Data Warehouse, will hold data on more than 2.2 million patients taken from the SHA’s existing databases and from September […]
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Online clinical incident reporting cuts admin
A primary care trust has deployed a web-based reporting tool to log clinical incidents in real time. Last month 64% of incidents were logged online and the trust says deployment of the system is already significantly reducing the administrative and managerial burden of reporting clinical incidents and has led to closer working between the clinical governance […]
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Tower Hamlets PCT cuts down PBC reporting times
Data mining software has cut down the length of time that one PCT needs to prepare PBC reports from two days to under an hour. Tower Hamlets PCT installed the Monarch system in order to go through their reports and pull out the necessary data from 38 practices, such as outpatient appointments, non-elective admissions […]
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More problems with London child health software
The Health Protection Agency has strongly criticised the interim child health systems used by ten primary care trusts in London after a fall in immunisation rates of up to 19% by primary care trusts using the system. The HPA said eight out of ten PCTs using the Child Health Interim Application (CHIA) supplied by the […]
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Sealed envelope safety risk raised by BMA
Doctors have raised concerns that Connecting for Health proposals to allow patients to hide some information in sealed envelopes puts patient safety at risk. Representatives at the British Medical Association’s annual meeting backed a motion which claimed that allowing patients to keep some medical information confidential from other doctors “may lead to significant patient safety […]
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Press gang
Have long-running allegations of media bias against the National Programme for IT any basis in fact? IT journalist Michael Cross gives his perspective.
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iSoft user group pushing for review of NPfIT
A primary care IT user group has backed calls for an independent review of the National Programme for IT (NPfIT), accusing the project of being unnecessarily secretive, failing to consult its members and producing systems that are not fit for purpose. The iSoft User Group (Primary Care) has written to the Health Select Committee to […]
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Dr Foster Intelligence free trial offered to GPs
Health information firm Dr Foster Intelligence is making hospital referral data in its practice based commissioning tool available free to GPs for a 30 day trial period. The company’s online practice based commissioning software provides GPs with activity data and financial statements for their practices plus benchmarking data for other practices in the same primary […]
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Targetting cancer
Acute trusts are successfully developing their own software and work practices to deal with the 62-day cancer waiting times target. Daloni Carlisle looks at a few examples.
Feature
NPfIT could ‘transform’ drug reaction reporting
Reporting of adverse drug reactions in England could be transformed by systematic collection through the National Programme for IT, according to the British Medical Association. The association’s new report, Reporting Adverse Drug Reactions: a guide for health professionals, says that the National Programme for IT (NPfIT) represents a “significant opportunity” to systematically gather information on […]
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