This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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e-Health investment announcement
28/02/2003
The Executive is to increase investment in NHS IT from
£26 million in the current financial year to £48.7 million
by 2005-6.
Health Minister Malcolm Chisholm said the investment -
part of the consequentials from Scotland's budget - will be
used to improve patient care, strengthen support and
facilities for NHS staff, and implement the service
re-design proposals within the new Health White Paper.
The Minister also announced that he will chair the
recently established eHealth Programme Board, which will
involve a broad spectrum of people closely involved in the
delivery of patient services amd NHS modernisation -
clinicians, nurses, and lab staff.
The increased investment announced today will help pay
for:
- the new, national, call/recall IT system which will
standardise protocols across Scotland for cervical
screening and ensure that wherever a woman lives, she
will have access to the same invitation and follow-up
procedures
- the upgrading of GP NHS network services to
broadband quality, providing faster access to a range
of information and services, from booking of outpatient
appointments, to the sending and receipt of test
results electronically
- raising the general standards of eHealth systems
support in hospitals, GP practices and health centres,
for example test ordering and results reporting,
electronic support for ward prescribing, and electronic
transmission of images such as x-rays to speed up
patient assessment and diagnosis, and ensure faster
access to treatment
Speaking ahead of the Electronic Clinical Communications
Implementation (ECCI) conference in Crieff, Mr Chisholm
said:
"eHealth has a crucial part to play in our programme for
NHS modernisation - a role clearly set out in the new
Health White Paper, published yesterday.
"The major increases in investment I am announcing today
will help NHSScotland maximise the use of modern technology
to transform working practices and patient services. For
example the new national call/recall IT system will
standardise protocols across Scotland to ensure wherever a
woman lives she will have the same access to invitation and
follow-up procedures for cervical screening.
"Our eHealth investment will also be central to the
further development of Managed Clinical Networks - already
created for a range of cancers and under development for
coronary heart disease, stroke, and a variety of chronic
conditions such as diabetes. IT investment will help
breakdown traditional barriers between GP and hospital
services - for example by enabling patient information to
flow between different healthcare sectors and ensuring
patients receive seamless treatment and care, regardless of
where it is provided.
"The 'streamlining' benefits are already being felt by
patients and staff through the emerging implementation of
the ECCI programme, which provides test results on-line,
and enables referral and discharge letters to be securely
transmitted between and GP practices and hospitals. ECCI is
also one the building blocks towards creating integrated
patient care records - the national roll out of which will
be supported by today's investment.
"These records provide key facts about a person's health
and care, accessible to the patient and clinicians, under
agreed access protocols.
"The first steps towards this are already underway at
Townhead Surgery in Irvine where patients can book GP
appointments using the Internet, access test results and
correspond with the practice using email.
"Today's investment will also strengthen our Audit and
Quality agenda. Technology enables staff to record what
they are doing as they do it, so that this can be analysed,
evaluated and audited, supporting them in maintaining and
improving performance, and achieving national standards for
treatment and care set out by organisations such as NHS
Quality Improvement Scotland.
"However, as always investment in equipment is pointless
without ensuring that those using NHS IT are fully involved
in its development and are appropriately trained and
supported to use it. ECCI has set a good example by
creating a clinically-led Programme Board, with each site
having a dedicated project doctor. We want to build on that
and persuade more clinicians to become involved in the
development of eHealth because they understand patients
frontline needs and clinical working practice. This will be
driven forward through clinical leadership at NHS Board
level. "We have also recently advertised a Lead Clinical
IM&T position in the Health Department, which will mean
right from the centre there will be important clinical
input on all eHealth matters.
"Through this broad-based approach - creating the new
eHealth Programme Board, involving staff, involving
patients and harnessing the capability of new and
ever-developing technology, we will transform the NHS, and
improve patients services in our hospitals and communities,
in all parts of Scotland."
The investment package will also help support:
- connection of all community pharmacists and
dentists to the NHSnet. This will help the wider
healthcare team and patients to communicate more
effectively to support improvements in care. A pilot of
electronic transmission of prescriptions from GP
practices to community pharmacies is already underway
in Ayrshire and will be extended to the whole of
Scotland
- the roll out of a national diabetes data set which
will ensure that the right information about care for
people with diabetes is collected consistently across
Scotland, in both primary and secondary care, making it
much easier to assess the quality of these
services
- improving eHealth facilities in A&E
departments, including links to the Scottish Ambulance
Service systems and NHS24