Seven pharmacy systems accredited for R1 ETP
Seven out of 11 pharmacy systems have attained technical accreditation for release one of electronic transmission of prescriptions (ETP) according to Connecting for Health (CfH). However technical accreditation does not equate to compliance which will only be achieved once a system has been successfully tested at an initial implementer site. CfH this week posted details […]
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Scottish practices indicate interest in systems switch
Almost 20 per cent of practices in Scotland have expressed an interest in switching to a different IT system with the vast majority of those wishing to change currently using the centrally funded system GPASS. GPs in Scotland had until the end of October to express an interest in moving to a new clinical computer […]
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Over 1,000 new NHS IT systems deployed
Connecting for Health (CfH), the Department of Health’s IT agency, has said that just over 1,000 system deployments had been made in the NHS in England by the beginning of August. The headline figure appears, however, to be bolstered by the application of a very broad definition of deployment — including web-based applications and taking over the hosting of […]
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Information systems needed for commissioning
Primary care trusts and practices need to urgently discuss how they can develop information systems to support practice-based commissioning according to the National Association of Primary Care (NAPC). The association has issued a ten step guide to practice based commissioning which underlines the need for practices and PCTs to have timely data on a very […]
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GP systems market shake-out predicted by Granger
The numbers of GP system suppliers and local pharmacies could be reduced within five years as the NHS IT programme transforms their markets, Richard Granger, chief executive of NHS Connecting for Health, has predicted. Granger described the primary care systems market as "immature" and based on a business model unlikely to be sustainable. He said: "I don’t […]
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InPractice Systems set to sign for the South
Fujitsu Alliance, Local Service Provider for the Southern cluster, looks set to finalise contract negotiations with InPractice Systems to supply a version of its Vision 3 system as the ‘alternative’ GP software solution, E-Health Insider has learned. A communication from a Strategic Health Authority chief information officer in the South received by EHI last week […]
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EMIS users urged to protest about systems choice
The head of the EMIS National User Group (NUG) has written to all EMIS users calling on them to lobby their MPs, local Primary Care Trusts or Local Medical Committees to express their concerns about National Programme for IT (NPfIT) strategy on choice of GP systems. The letter from Dr Manpreet Pujara, chair of EMIS NUG, […]
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BT Syntegra names Axios Systems as help desk partners
Axios Systems’ assyst software has been selected by BT Syntegra as its help desk and IT service management system for the NHS central data ‘spine’ and the London cluster. The service desks will be set up and managed from BT Syntegra’s UK service centre based in Leeds. Ailsa Symeonides, Axios Systems’ sales and marketing director, […]
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GP systems need to improve safety features, says NPSA
The safety features of computing systems currently in use in about three quarters of UK general practices have clinically important deficiencies, according to research funded by the National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA). Researchers writing in the British Medical Journal say that all four of the systems tested may fail to signal a warning when a GP user might […]
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GP choice in IT systems debated
A senior officer from the National Programme for IT said he would have failed and the programme would have failed if a GP was asked to move to an inferior IT system. Duncan McNeil, director of the Design Authority, made his statement at Healthcare Computing 2004 as the last word in a question and answer […]
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