Taskforce announced to speed up NCRS

The Department of Health is setting up a taskforce to speed up implementation of the NHS Care Records Service (NCRS) and will announce a start date for pilot projects for the summary record soon, GPs’ representatives heard.

Health minister Lord Warner told the national local medical committees’ conference about plans to speed up delivery of the NCRS and improve clinical engagement, in a speech designed to tackle the key criticisms likely to feature in the National Audit Office (NAO) report on the National Programme for IT, due for publication today.

The NAO report is expected to focus much of its criticism on delays in implementing the NCRS and on the programme’s failure to win clinicans’ hearts and minds.

However the timetable for the start of pilot projects on the summary record seems to have again slipped slightly, from a suggested timescale two months ago of late 2006 to early 2007 to a definite start date of early 2007.

Lord Warner, who was the first health department minister to address an LMCs’ conference, said a date for the pilots to begin in early 2007 would be published soon, following a short period of consultation.

He added: “We cannot carry on with the cumbersome, outdated and I would say sometimes dangerous paper-based system. It’s critical we make the transition to electronic records, and the sooner the better for patients and doctors alike.”

Lord Warner said a new taskforce chaired by a layperson and involving a cross section of clincial representatives including deputy chief medical officer Professor Martin Marshall will develop a “detailed implementation plan” for speeding up delivery of the NCRS.

The taskforce will be expected to produce its detailed action plan by the end of this year and draw on the work on electronic records done by the Veterans’ Administration in the US. The health department said the Veterans’ Administration already has a fully operational electronic patient record system and the health mionister will be consulting the profession imminently on this.

Lord Warner said Prof Marshall will also take on a fuller role in helping with clinical enegagement over the introduction of the NCRS, in conjunction with the existing national clinical leads.

Lord Warner also referred to the long-awaited public information campaign on the NCRS on which he said a further announcement would be made in due course.

In the speech Lord Warner appeared to acknowledge doctors’ concerns about the NCRS but called for “clinical leadership” over the issue.

He told the conference: “I understand fully the concerns and reservations some doctors have about electronic patient records. We will fully consult with all professional interests and patients on the nature of the summary record and the confidentiality safeguards. But now is the time for leadership in this area and by that I mean clinical leadership as well.”

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