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