The NHS Programme for I.T. (Part 1)

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear - where shall I start? It seems like such a good thing in theory - getting all the technology up to date is excellent - theoretically reducing failures and improving efficiency - the latter happening with appropriate staff training. However, it is something that has had problems from the start.

This topic will be split over multiple posts because it is so huge. I'll be covering it's faults, it's positives, why it was developed and also what I think should be done. It's a subject that I've been talking about for ages, but now I'm posting about it here.

I think one of the first things that needs to be covered though is the description of the programme. NPfIT is delivered by the government agency Connecting for Health. The parts of it are:

• NHS CRS - A new patient records system.


• Choose and Book - A new service for booking appointments and choosing hospitals.


• ETP - This is the Electronic Transmission of Prescriptions, which has been introduced as something which will be faster and more convenient.


• N3 - the broadband network.


• NHSmail - A new central email service.


• PACS - This is the Picture Archiving & Communication System, which will store things such as x-rays.


• QMAS - For those of you who are old enough to remember the Quatermass Experiment, it's nothing to do with that. It's the Quality Management & Analysis System.

The next part in the series will be covering the new patient records system.

Technorati tags: NPfIT, Connecting for Health, IT, Government, NHS