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This week EHI Primary Care reports on how good medical practice guidance for GPs has been updated to take account of the world of new technology. Six years since its first publication the document now states that an 'exemplary GP' should have a clear and accurate practice website rather than just a practice leaflet, be aware of patients' desire to consult by email as well as on the telephone and have access to a variety of methods to provide patients with health information. What the updated guidance does not really address is the new world of information-sharing and the NHS Care Records Service in particular. It does, however, underline the need for GPs to obtain informed consent before any sensitive information is shared with other healthcare professionals.
In another report this week we bring news of a European Court of Human Rights judgement over the case of a nurse in Finland with HIV who discovered her colleagues had been accessing her records. The court ruled that her rights had been violated and said those not involved in a patient's care should be unable to access a patient's electronic medical record.
Elsewhere we bring you the latest update from the campaign to see revenue-sharing telephone numbers banned from the NHS, with the focus this time on NHS Direct, and report on progress with the Department of Health's information accreditation scheme. |
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GPs shape the future of health IT
In the latest column from NHS Connecting for Health, Peter Short, one of the agency's national clinical leads for GPs, discusses some key issues for the profession.
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60 Second Interview: Murray Bain
In his latest 60 second interview with the people who make NHS computing work, Joe Fernandez talks to Murray Bain, director of IT at NHS Direct.
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N3 Scotland starts network upgrade with pharmacists
N3 Scotland has announced that it is to migrate all community pharmacy broadband N3 connections to a new broadband product between August and December 2008. N3 Scotland said the upgraded network, based on IPstream, would provide an improved service including faster download and upload performance as well as being a stepping stone for future technology development. The migration is to be a phased approach by the community beginning with community pharmacists.
London commissioners to get intelligence data from Trillium software
The Commissioning Support Service, a NHS organisation that works with PCTs across London, is to implement Trillium's Software System to determine the quality of the capital's patient, clinical and service data. CSS will use the system to provide intelligence to commissioners across 30 London PCTs to support their data management, demand forecasting and healthcare planning and purchasing activities. Husna Naujeer, communications manager at CSS, said: "We needed a solution that would help to automate much of the data validation and ensure a fast response from our services."
More patients offered video telemedicine out-of-hours
An audio visual service for patients accessing out-of-hours GP consultations in Perthshire, Scotland has been extended. The new video link at Crieff Community Hospital's minor illness and injury unit went live yesterday. It builds on the GP telemedicine network being piloted between Blairgowrie Cottage Hospital and the Wallacetown Out-of-Hours Hub in Dundee. The scheme has been running for four months. The out-of-hours service at Crieff is nurse-led and the video link will allow patients to seek a specialist medical opinion from a GP if required, with patient and doctor viewing each other on screens.
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"The future is clearly that patients will want different ways of communicating with their GP."
RCGP chairman Dr Steve Field on revisions to good medical practice guidance.
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