16.01.13
NHS to share digital medical records by 2018
Patients should be able to access their medical records online by 2015, health secretary Jeremy Hunt is to announce. The roll-out of the project will incorporate the whole NHS and be complete by 2018.
The new digital health records projects could save £5bn a year, as well as improving patient care. Information would be shared between all parts of the health and social care system and implementation will be led by the NHS Commissioning Board.
The Government will set out national standards for different IT systems to talk to each other, and CCGs will be allowed to design and purchase their own programmes.
By 2014, all hospitals and GPs should be able to access and update medical records, Hunt will say. By 2015, all patients should be able to access their own records and by 2018 all parts of the NHS would be included in the paperless scheme.
The DH estimates that the project would cost £1.2bn to implement over 10 years, and would save £6.3bn, producing net savings of just over £5bn.
Labour has previously attempted to launch a similar scheme, Connecting for Health, which saw scans and x-rays stored and sent electronically. However, there are concerns around patient privacy and the feasibility of such an ambitious project.
Hunt said: “The NHS cannot be the last man standing as the rest of the economy embraces the technology revolution.
“It is crazy that ambulance drivers cannot access a full medical history of someone they are picking up in an emergency – and that GPs and hospitals still struggle to share digital records.
“Previous attempts to crack this became a top down project akin to building an aircraft carrier. We need to learn those lessons – and in particular avoid the pitfalls of a hugely complex, centrally specified approach. Only with world class information systems will the NHS deliver world class care.”
Labour's shadow health minister, Jamie Reed, said: “As winter bites, the NHS is facing its toughest time of the year and the government has left it unprepared. Patients are waiting too long in A&E and being treated in under-staffed hospitals – they will not thank him for making this a priority. He should sort out the bread and butter issues first.”
Two new reports have been published to accompany the announcement: the first from Price Waterhouse Coopers, which found that £4.4bn could be reinvested into better use of IT, such as electronic prescribing and text messaging for negative test results, to allow professionals to spend more time with patients. A National Mobile Health Worker report details a pilot study introducing laptops at 11 NHS sites.
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