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EFFICIENCY


Patient data, IT connectivity, document management and online integration are being slowly but surely overhauled in Wales – with positive results for clinicians, health managers, and patients. Adam Hewitt reports.


T


he NHS Wales Informatics Service (NWIS) has published a report into its


fi rst year of operation, including its good progress on getting Individual Health Re- cords available nationally by the end of this year.


The NWIS was formed on April 1, 2010, as part of the wider NHS Wales health re- forms, by bringing together the Business Services Centre (IM&T), the Corporate Health Information Programme, Health Solutions Wales, Informing Healthcare, the Information Services Division and the Primary Care Informatics Programme.


Past, present and future


Dr Gwyn Thomas, Director for Informat- ics, Health and Social Services, in his fore- word to the progress report, writes: “Rec- ognising the importance of partnerships, we engaged with health boards to develop implementation plans for the roll out of all- Wales, integrated health and care systems. This co-ordinated working will continue as we move forward with process change.


“Looking ahead our priority will remain the delivery of the information and IT services that have the maximum impact on pro- ductivity and quality of care for patients. It is therefore pleasing to report that the core national ICT products and services, described in this report, have the capabil- ity to support the high volume clinical and administrative processes that take place on


a daily basis in the NHS in Wales and have the ability to integrate and transform care.


“We will also concentrate on the ‘second- ary use’ of information to support plan- ning, decision making and performance management.”


Gateway to progress


More than a quarter of GP practices now have access to the Welsh Clinical Commu- nications Gateway, and more than 60,000 electronic referrals have been sent between GP practices and hospitals, the report says.


In addition, almost 14,000 orders for pa- thology tests or results have been placed via the Welsh Clinical Portal.


On the Individual Care Record, the report explains: “Patients across Wales can now have confi dence that the doctor or nurse providing care when their local surgery is closed knows something about them – be- cause the emergency doctor can see the im- portant information held by the patient’s GP in their Individual Health Record.”


Patients have to give permission for their care record to be seen online by out-of- hours doctors.


Knowing who’s who


The report also provides an update on tri- als of the Enterprise Master Patient index (EMPI), which is aimed at helping that pa- tients are always correctly identifi ed.


It explains: “Using key criteria such as name, address, date of birth, NHS number and sex, it will collect data across a health board to create one ‘gold standard’ patient identity.”


The report notes that the prevalence of cer- tain surname in Wales – including ‘Jones’ – make it particularly necessary.


It says: “Four early adopter projects have loaded over 23 million patient identity re- cords from the different hospital systems together with 3 million records from the Welsh Demographics service, to identify where patients have duplicate records.”


The report also highlights the importance 40 | national health executive Sep/Oct 11


The capacity of the network is now being increased alongside upgrades to its resil- ience and the introduction of back-up lines, the report adds.


Data security


It also provides an update on encryption for document management, including the enabling of a framework contract of stand- ard products and services.


It says: “Should the worst happen and a mobile device is lost, that information will not be able to be viewed as it has been en- crypted. Linked to the National Email and Directory service, it allows NHS Wales or- ganisations to take forward the installation of encryption tools in their organisation.


“Through the all-Wales framework agree- ment organisations can buy the encryption software, at signifi cant cost savings, to en- able organisations to share and move pa- tient information knowing that it is secure. For example, if Mrs Jones’ details are be- ing held in a health board in West Wales and she moves to an area in North Wales, her information can be encrypted to safely transport it.”


Staying on the document security theme, the update report also notes that NWIS has worked closely with the BMA to ensure that only clinicians involved in the direct care of patients are able to view the IHR – and notes that NHS England has now aban- doned its original plans in this area and has adopted the ‘Welsh way’ of managing patient consent.


It also explains more about the new ‘Your information, your rights’ leafl et explaining NHS Wales’ policy on data management and privacy.


FOR MORE INFORMATION


The interactive update document is at www.tinyurl.com/NWIS-Update


of digitally connecting health organisations across Wales, noting: “Every one of our 498 GP practices, our 707 pharmacies and our Health Boards are now connected to the Public Service Broadband network. This is a signifi cant achievement and is as essen- tial to the future of the NHS as good road and rail links are for transport.”


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