Technology is being used throughout the NHS to help deliver and support patient care.
The Yorkshire and the Humber Programme for IT (Y&HPfIT) is a programme of work that is an essential element in delivering the NHS Plan by improving patient care and increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of clinicians and other NHS staff. Over the next ten years Y&HPfIT will connect over 30,000 GPs in England to almost 300 hospitals, giving patients access to their personal health and care information, transforming the way the NHS works.
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Do You Know an Informatics Star?
We are celebrating our colleagues' contribution to the successes in Yorkshire and the Humber over the last few years. We’d like to take a moment to say thank you by holding an awards event for those who have really contributed to health informatics. We’d like you to nominate your teams, colleagues or individuals you’ve worked with, who have really made a difference!
Closing Date Friday 15 February 2013. Click on the link below to find all the information you need to know:
Comms pack for website (324.6KB)
iNews
We are delighted to launch our brand new bi-monthly publication which aims to deliver comprehensive coverage of informatics news stories from across the North of England Strategic Health Authority Cluster. This publication replaces the former Newslink and covers the north east, north west and Yorkshire and the Humber. It features case studies, the latest technology, forthcoming events and all the IT issues that are central to the working lives of our readers. We hope you find it informative and we are keen to hear your views. Click here to see the latest editions.
For previous editions of Newslink, the former Yorkshire and Humber newsletter click here
To publicise a technology related event, or to submit an article for inclusion in our newsletter, please email programme.office@yorksandhumber.nhs.uk
This section of the site provides more information on Y&HPfIT, who the team are working with, their plans for the next few months and why the programme is such a crucial part of the modernisation of the National Health Service.
Why a national programme?
Better information for health and patient care
Better information leading to better health and care for every patient is at the heart of the Yorkshire and the Humber Programme for IT (NPfIT).
It is transforming the way information flows around the health service, making it possible to deliver faster, safer and more convenient patient care. At the same time it is giving patients the information they need to look after their own health.
Patient records
A new computer network will link up GPs, hospitals and chemists to improve the sharing of patients' records across the NHS. It will eventually allow patients to look at their own health records from home using a protected link into the NHS. Health care records, appointment details, prescription information, and up-to-date research into illnesses and treatment will be accessible to patients and health professionals whenever they need it to make health or care decisions.
Patient records will be stored electronically and be available to those authorised to see them. Access controls will be strict and people will have different views of the record based on their role in the patient's care.
New ways of working
Using new electronic booking services (Choose and Book), patients will be able to book initial hospital appointments from their GP surgery at a time and place of their choice. Prescriptions may also be sent electronically from the GP to a local chemist.
To help bring about the new ways of working identified in the NHS Plan, the NHS needs to make better use of IT, to support front line staff and to deliver the quality services patients expect. It is an enormous and very complex task to enable the secure and appropriate sharing of health information of about 50 million individuals. There will be difficulties along the way, but patients, the public and the NHS need to work together to bring about these vital changes.
What’s involved?
Summary Care Record
Every patient's medical and care records will be held electronically and will eventually be available securely online. The information will be safely and easily accessible to healthcare professionals and patients, whenever and wherever it is needed.
Choose and book (CAB)
Choose and Book is a national service that will, for the first time, combine electronic booking and a choice of time, date and place for first outpatient appointment.
Electronic Prescription Service (EPS)
EPS is a new service making it easier and more convenient for GPs to issue prescriptions and for patients to collect medicines.
Picture archiving and communications systems (PACS)
PACS are systems to capture, store, distribute and display static or moving digital medical images, supporting improvements to the patient's care.
New national network
A national network (known as N3) with sufficient connectivity and broadband capacity to meet current and future NHS needs.
Quality management and analysis system (QMAS)
QMAS gives GP practices feedback on the quality of care delivered to patients, measured against national achievement targets detailed in the GMS (General Medical Services) contract which sets out the way GPs work and the way they are financially rewarded.
Contact
A centrally managed email and directory service provided free of charge to NHS organisations in England.
For more information about any of the above please visit www.cfh.nhs.uk
What will it do for patients?
It will enable the delivery of better care to patients by staff equipped with the latest information at their fingertips. Gone will be the days of lost medical records, inconvenient appointments, and repeated journeys to hospital. Gone will be the endless paperchase between GP surgeries and hospitals as appointments are made and re-made and test results chased up and re-ordered.
Y&HPfIT will provide solutions to these problems. In tandem with other programmes, a much more patient-centred NHS will be able to meet patients’ needs at times and places to suit them.
Y&HPfIT for older people
All health organisations and social services in Yorkshire and the Humber are currently working towards introducing a single assessment process for all older people with care needs. The new assessment will prevent people from having to provide the same personal details and discuss their needs with a range of different agencies. It will also make sure the patient’s needs and wishes are at the heart of the process.
The single assessment process recognises that many older people have health and social care needs, and that agencies need to work together so that assessment and care planning are person-centred, effective and co-ordinated.
The single assessment process will link with the care record service. This service is just one element of Y&HPfIT. The care record service is an electronic record that health and social carers will be able to access if they need to. If patients are concerned about other care providers accessing information about the other types of treatment they may be having, they can restrict which pieces of information can be shared, although this would mean that care providers may not know about other types of treatment being received and may mean that the care package/plan may not be as effective as it could be.
The Y&HPfIT team would welcome any comments you have on the site and any additional information you would like to see - please email the team with any feedback.
Yorkshire and the Humber Programme for IT
Click on the link below which gives you all the information you need to know
