The Quality Management and Analysis System (QMAS)
The quality and outcomes framework (QoF) is designed to reward practices for the quality of care offered to their patients and will be an important part of General Practice income for the next few years.
Feature
Charing Cross introduces robotic drug dispensing
Two newly installed electronic dispensing systems at London’s Charing Cross Hospital, one of which uses robotics, are improving improving the speed and accuracy of dispensing on wards and in the hospital pharmacy. One system, dubbed Pollyanna, is a fully-automated pharmacy storage and dispensing computer. Staff input the drug name and dosage from the paper-based prescription, and a […]
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MPs told Wales, Scotland and NI passed on NPfIT
The NHS in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales were each approached and subsequently turned down the opportunity to participate in the £6billion National Programme for IT (NPfIT), a Commons select committee has been told. As a result, hospitals in England treating patients from Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland face the prospect of having to maintain […]
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Scottish GPs say GPASS is failing doctors
GPs in Scotland have warned the Scottish Executive that the official Scotland-wide IT system for general practice, GPASS, is failing doctors. The warning came when Scottish doctors recently debated and passed a motion at their annual conference which claimed that GPASS (the General Practice Administration System), a system for managing general practice, is "continuing to fail […]
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Nurses in the dark on IT developments, survey reveals
UK nurses are generally positive about NHS IT developments, but over three quarters have received little or no information about them, a survey conducted by Nursix for the Royal College of Nursing reveals. Alison Kitson, executive director nursing, at the RCN, said: "Clearly nurses can see huge improvements in patient care with the introduction of […]
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CSW to prove concept of Welsh ‘Single Record’
Oxford-based CSW Health has been awarded a contract by NHS Wales to develop a Technical Proof of Concept (TPoC) for the Integrated Electronic Health Record – ‘Single Record’ – for the NHS in Wales. The TPoC work represents a first stage in implementing the Welsh NHS IT strategy, Informing Healthcare and will inform the development of […]
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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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Welsh NHS IT strategy launched, again
In the week that the NHS in England awarded a tranche of major IT contracts, worth £2.7 billion, Welsh Assembly Health Minister Jane Hutt has once again officially launched the IT strategy for the Welsh NHS, the difference being this time that £88m of dedicated funding has been committed over the next three years. The ‘Informing […]
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Swansea switches on integrated care records
Adults with learning disabilities in Swansea are set to become the first social services clients in Wales to benefit from a new electronic care record system linking together health and social care professionals. This Friday, 7 November, Swansea’s city and council Social Services department will officially launch a new computerised client record system, which will […]
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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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