17.05.13
£260m fund for digital prescriptions
A new £260m fund will help hospitals to implement electronic prescriptions and patient record systems, health secretary Jeremy Hunt has announced.
The funding will increase the use of technology to stop drugs being prescribed incorrectly due to errors in patient notes. These have been found to be present in up to 8% of all records, which could be cut by half using new technology.
Trusts will be able to bid for funding to replace paper-based systems and link systems to patient records, to link across hospitals and different parts of the NHS. They must demonstrate that projects will lead to better, safer care.
Hunt said: “This fund will allow doctors and nurses to make the NHS safer by harnessing the very latest technology.
“In many places, right now, a paramedic picking up a frail elderly woman who has had a fall will not always know she has dementia, because he or she cannot access her notes. Or a doctor is prescribing the wrong drugs, because they don’t know what drugs their patient is already on.
“If we are to improve patient safety then we must allow the NHS to have access to the best tools available and this fund will help them achieve that.”
Tim Kelsey, national director for Patients and Information within NHS England said: “We are delighted to be working with the NHS, DH colleagues and frontline NHS staff to ensure that this fund enables the NHS to make substantial progress towards routine use of high quality data at the point of care.
“This step change in integrating diverse information sources around the needs to the patient will support clinicians and provider organisations deliver world class patient care.”
Professor Sir Bruce Keogh, medical director of NHS England said: “This new fund will help patients get better and safer care by giving clinicians access to the right information when they need it most.
“Supporting hospitals to replace outdated paper systems for notes and prescriptions will help relieve patients’ frustration at having to repeat their medical and medication history over and over again, often in the same hospital, because their records aren’t available.
“Expanding the use of electronic prescribing of medications in hospitals will help improve safety, save lives and save taxpayer’s money.”
Foundation Trust Network chief executive Chris Hopson added: “This investment in IT is timely and welcome. NHS colleagues appreciate that in a time of financial rigour, investment must show a return. Involving front-line colleagues in the scheme’s design, as NHS England have done, is appropriate and sensible. Good, safe and prompt patient care relies on timely data: NHS England’s decision helps NHS providers ensure that we sustain and raise performance throughout the NHS.”
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