This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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eHealth takes a step forward
20/10/2003
The increased use of Information Technology within the
NHS should benefit patients hugely, Helath Minister Malcolm
Chisholm said today before chairing the first meeting of
the 'eHealth' Programme Board.
The board is a new body set up to develop patient
information systems, IT infrastructure and put eHealth into
practice across Scotland, including the establishment of
Integrated Care Records.
The Minister said:
"The Partnership Agreement gave a commitment to improve
service provision through Information Technology. We firmly
believe that the development of eHealth will make the
health service more user friendly for patients, as well as
supporting their needs and giving them power and
influence.
"Part of this commitment was to deliver an Integrated
Care Record (ICR) managed jointly by patients and
professional NHS staff. An ICR will enable greater patient
involvement in their own care, quicker exchange of
information between professionals and quicker access to
patient records. Such developments will take time, but
there is no doubt that ICRs are an exciting development and
will substantially ease the passage of information across
NHSScotland.
"Patients may also be able to benefit from IT through
the building up of electronic links between GP practices
and hospitals. Currently only 500 of Scotland's GP
practices - around half the total - have online access from
consulting rooms to results of tests sent to hospital
laboratories. For patients this means better reliability
compared to paper, and less time to wait, but it is
important that all practices should have the opportunity to
benefit from this technology.
"Another example is to improve NHSScotland's website,
making it more useful to patients. Known as SHOW, the
information on this website already gets some three million
hits per month from the public. We need to exploit the
growth of the Internet and see it as an add-on to our NHS
24 telephone advice service. We will therefore increase the
amount of information available and by involving patients
and carers make sure it meets their needs for a single
'gateway' to trusted health and advice information.
"But there is further room for development. eHealth has
the potential to provide patients and carers with more
information on how to stay healthy, prevent illnesses, and
inform services available such as waiting times and
admission arrangements. On discharge from hospital,
patients could also be provided with information about the
treatment they have received, drugs they are to take, and
any further consultations required.
"Today's meeting is the first of a series that will give
all relevant stakeholders the opportunity to sit down and
discuss the best ways in which all these goals can be
achieved by using Information Technology. All those present
have a lot to digest over the coming months and future
meetings will be used to further development ways of making
eHealth and integral part of NHSScotland and using it to
improve patient care across the country.
In February of this year, the Executive announced an
increase in
investment in NHS IT from £26 million in 2002/03 to
£48.7 million by 2005-6.
Funding for the current financial year is £28.4 million,
increasing to £41.8 million for 2004/05 and to £48.7
million for 2005/06.
eHealth encompasses much more than the deployment of
computer technology.
It conveys the message of electronics in support of
health and stimulates thought and discussion about the
broad range of issues and opportunities that technology
offers in the health care setting to both healthcare
professionals and patients.
The Minister for Health has defined eHealth as
follows:
"eHealth includes the development, application and
implementation of technology to improve effectiveness in
healthcare. But it also includes getting it out there
wherever it's needed in the service and making it happen
across the service. It includes the use of telemedicine and
clinical systems used for diagnosis and care pathways. We
also apply the term to the policies and protocols that
assure the confidentiality and security of sensitive data.
Most of all it includes those aspects that support major
change of working practice - training, support and
Organisational Development."
The eHealth Programme Board includes experts from within
the Executive's Health Department, senior clinicians and a
member of the Partnership Forum.
Integrated Care Records will bring together important
information from all sources about each patient available
to authorised healthcare professionals to support their day
to day work, to better manage the care of their patients
and to support clinical governance and accreditation
requirements. Such access will be within a secure
environment and profiling of users will ensure that it is
limited to what any given professional needs to know.