Online services feel crunchers’ pain
A dedicated NHS Direct telephone line and more information on NHS Choices will be set up as part of a package of measures to support people affected by the credit crunch. Health secretary Alan Johnson has said that the government will be investing an extra £13m in services to help unemployed people who are experiencing […]
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Northgate Demand Manager
Northgate Public Services has launched a web-based demand management system to support world class commissioning. Demand Manager is aimed at helping primary care trusts to improve the way they commission health and care services and work with providers. It gives both commissioners and providers online access to referral and national performance information, so they can […]
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Virtually there
An increasing number of NHS trusts are undertaking virtualisaton projects. Daloni Carlisle reports.
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DH and London move on shared services
NHS chief executive David Nicholson is encouraging the health service to make greater use of shared services as London’s primary care trusts prepare to set up their own commissioning support organisation. Nicholson wrote to trust chief executives last week to encourage them to use NHS Shared Business Services or other shared services for back-office functions. […]
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BT Global Services takes £340m hit
Almost £1.5bn was wiped off BT’s market value on Thursday after the telecoms group said it had taken a big hit at its global services arm, the division responsible for three key NHS contracts. BT Global Services will take a charge of £340m following a review of 15 of 17 of Global Services largest contracts. […]
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Here is the news: for 2009
The NHS will not be immune from the impact of the credit crunch and this will force policy makers and trusts to make some hard decisions about healthcare IT, according to experts interviewed by E-Health Insider. Almost all the politicians, analysts, suppliers and managers asked to look ahead to 2009 argued that the health service […]
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Shake up in Informatics Planning
Local health communities have been instructed to move towards “information-led rather than service-led planning” and to create new structures to plan and deliver the IT needed to do it. Informatics Planning 2009-10, a document published alongside the Operating Framework for the NHS in England 2009-10, further shifts attention from the National Programme for IT in […]
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Operating Framework stresses savings and Darzi
NHS organisations have been told to sort out their finances in preparation for making “very substantial efficiency savings” in 2010-11, when the health service’s three year settlement comes to an end. The Operating Framework for the NHS in England 2009-10, announced by the Department of Health yesterday but only released onto its website this morning, […]
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Hard Times?
What does this week’s pre-budget report mean for the NHS and its IT? Fiona Barr investigates.
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Pre-budget report targets NHS efficiency savings
Billions of pounds of extra efficiency savings are to be required from public sector organisations, including the NHS, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced yesterday. The savings form part of the emergency measures set out in the pre-budget report designed to kick-start the British economy, which is predicted to be heading into a deep recession. Government borrowing will […]
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