The smart choice for self-employed professionals

News

• All News
•  
• General News
• Taxes & Legislation
• Operational Updates

Ask A Question

Title*

Forename*

Surname*

Your Question*

Email Address*

 

Paper-less NHS by 2018?

16.01.13

The UK health secretary Jeremy Hunt has revealed his desire for a 'paper-less' NHS by 2018, which would save the service an estimated £4.4billion.

Hunt wants to give everyone access to their health records online by March 2015, with a target of April 2018 to introduce fully digital records, so anybody's medical details can be brought up at the touch of a button by any NHS or social worker.

'The NHS cannot be the last man standing as the rest of the economy embraces the technology revolution. It is crazy that ambulance drivers cannot access a full medical history of someone they are picking up in an emergency – and that GPs and hospitals still struggle to share digital records,' said Hunt.

Another stage of the proposed plans is to replace letters from GPs with emails, saving both time and money. Similarly, electronic prescribing would be introduced if the plans were to go ahead.

Until now, the NHS has been archaic in terms of technology usage, and has been criticised for lacking behind other services and organisations in this field. Infamously, a similar proposed overhaul of the systems used within the NHS was announced in 2002, but the programme has since been disbanded.

These plans from Hunt will be seen as many as a second chance by many for the NHS, and they will inevitably require a huge investment in IT and the award of various contracts if they are to be successful. As always, it's vital to use highly skilled contractors who are best placed to resource this kind of project work.

<< Back to All News