TeesPath and CSW launch lab-links project
County Durham and Tees Valley Strategic Health Authority (CDTV SHA) has signed a contract with CSW to use its CaseNotes product to link together the information contained in the pathology systems locally. The aim is to reduce inefficiencies and improve access of information to clinicians. The contract, brokered through the local Clinical Network of Pathology services […]
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Data spine key to Patient’s Passport, say Tories
Under a Conservative government the NHS Care Record Service would become the key tool enabling the introduction of the proposed Patient’s Passport initiative under which patients could choose between a range of health service providers taking their funding with them. In an interview with E-Health Insider shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley, said that a future […]
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New report sets out need for e-prescribing
A new report from the Chief Pharmaceutical Officer on the causes of medicines safety has spelt out the critical role that electronic prescribing (e-prescribing) systems can play in reducing medication errors. ‘Building a Safer NHS for Patients: Improving Medication Safety’ describes standards of prescribing in the NHS as high. However, it stresses mistakes can arise […]
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Calculating the final bill
Anyone who reads the Times will be familiar with their ‘dine out for a tenner’ deals. Top London restaurants offer cheap deals on stripped-down menus, while banking that once they’ve got you in the door and you’ve drunk your complimentary glass of fizz you’ll start ordering a la carte and racking up a big bill. […]
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NHS signs national deal with Oracle
The National Programme for IT (NPfIT) has signed a corporate licensing agreement with the Oracle Corp., that will provide NHS organisations with access to Oracle products at up to 50% below list price. Modelled on the NHS-wide corporate enterprise agreement signed with Microsoft in 2000, the new agreement with Oracle is designed to enable the […]
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Renal Services NSF information strategy published
The Department of Health has published its information strategy to help support delivery of the National Service Framework (NSF) for renal services. Local Service Providers (LSPs) and the National Application Service Provider providing the Data Spine project will have a central role to play in ensuring the success of the strategy. The new information strategy […]
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TransScript ETP project to close
TransScript ETP, the only UK company dedicated to the development of the Electronic Transmission of Prescriptions (ETP), is to close from 31 December 2003. TransScript was formed by PharMed, an organisation that has been committed to developing secure open industry standards for ETP since 1997. The PharMed project, one of three ETP pilots run nationally, […]
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Reader Comment: ‘NPfIT Viewed from Scotland’
The following ‘reader comment’ was supplied in response to recent E-Health Insider reports on the development of the National Programme for IT. The author is a consultant anaesthetist at a leading Scottish acute trust, who leads on IT issues locally. There is much about the current national programme procurements and what they entail, and the machinations […]
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ETP Pilots Evaluation Challenged
One of the three consortia set up to test electronic transmission of prescriptions (ETP) says an official evaluation does not take account of its later work on the project when the volume of prescriptions processed picked up. The evaluation commissioned by the government was published on 17 September as part of package of announcements from […]
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NPfIT Contract Negotiations Get Tough
The long-term future of a key pillar of the Government’s modernisation strategy for the NHS depends on what increasingly resembles a game of chicken, now being played out between the National Programme for IT (NPfIT) and the suppliers left in the contract negotiations for the procurement competitions. Participants in this high-stakes game of poker describe […]
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