Recent government changes in payments and urgent care targets have made it critical for NHS commissioners Without their customary growth in annual income, NHS trusts face unprecedented challenges in finding productivity savings of £20bn The Information Commissioner have new powers to fine public organisations for serious breaches of the Data Protection Act As announced last year, 1 July 2011 saw the official move from our Select licensing to the new Select Plus framework agreement Cloudcasts are a series of insightful interviews with a variety of senior IT decision-makers, produced by Microsoft and Computing. Microsoft is supporting Race Online 2012’s bid to get the remaining 9m disconnected online with the Get Online @ Home initiative. Microsoft has published three new white papers in its series of free educational publications on Cloud Computing. Care Plus Group has its sights set on becoming the provider of choice for adult care in North East Lincolnshire. The SIRO is apparently designed to ‘act as an advocate’ for risk to the powers that be in your Trust. The Intellectual Property Office is piloting Peer to Patent on the processing of IT patents over the next six months. GP Neil Paul sets out his vision for a home visit IT kit. One of the hardest things for any IT person to realise is this: it’s not about the technology. The same suckers will play the same hands and one day find themselves at the centre of a game where a big pot is at stake and the ICO is involved. The way we react to attempts to monitor our performance electronically. Dr. Neil Paul asks if GPs emerging into a brave new world of commissioning could do with some IT performance management. Whatever the politics, there still appears to be consensus on the need for change. Indeed change is now the norm in the NHS, and not just for political reasons. ISF warns that the ‘open knowledge society’ where participation and innovation is leaving organisations struggling to balance transparency and confidentiality. Officials are now looking to the private and voluntary sectors to provide front-end products for online health records. A project to create new websites for South Cheshire and some new collaboration tools. Inventory management has an important role to play in the financial operating efficiency of NHS Trusts. There’s a stigma attached to second hand goods, but also an air of virtue. The problems facing those in the NHS who have to deal with security issues. 'Agile' is the modish term for developing systems in a quick and messy way, but with the capacity to be tweaked (or abandoned) in the light of experience. For patients with long-term conditions, timely access to useful information and advice about managing their health could improve their quality of life. After he wrote about needing local codes in EMIS Web, the company was on the phone to our GP columnist. Now he has a few other ideas. The NHS is relying more on health informatics not just for back office functions but to deliver the core business of patient care. The Government’s 'An Information Revolution' consultation is done. Now we must sit back and wait to see just how it will move the NHS forward. Dr Amir Hannan, the greater Manchester GP who was one of the pioneers of encouraging patients to access their electronic medical records. With the focus of healthcare IT now on local solutions rather than big bangs, GP Neil Paul uncovers some potential teething problems. With the Health and Social Care Bill 2011 starting its progress through Parliament, the Government is pushing through a truly radical re-organisation. Health Secretary Andrew Lansley insists the NHS must embrace value-based competition if it is to meet the future needs of patients. Patients rightly demand care from the NHS wherever they may be; yet trusts are under pressure to cut costs and improve efficiency. |
