First Welsh practice live with IHR

The first GP practice and out-of-hours service in Wales has gone live with Informing Healthcare’s new Individual Health Record solution.

The biggest GP practice in Wales, the Argyle Medical Group in Pembroke Dock, which has 27,000 patients, has become the first practice to use the IHR solution from GP system supplier INPS.

The pilot will link the practice with the Pembrokeshire and Ceredigion out-of-hours service.

Informing Healthcare announced last September that it was changing its approach to the deliver of the IHR in Wales, by signing agreements with GP system suppliers to deliver proprietary versions.

INPS was the first GP supplier to sign an agreement. This week, a spokesperson for the Welsh IT agency told EHI Primary Care that it was at an “advanced stage of the procurement process” with other GP system suppliers and out-of-hours software supplier Adastra.

The spokesperson said Informing Healthcare had also signed an agreement with INPS for an extended demonstrator.

She added: “The Argyle Medical Group was the first demonstrator to go live. We are planning to roll out to the other 18 INPS practices served by the Pembrokeshire and Ceredigion out-of hours-service over the next few months.”

Informing Healthcare plans to work with the GP system suppliers to develop a standard data extraction and a common user interface so that IHR information can be presented in the same way across Wales.

The IHR is available on a ‘consent to view’ basis and contains information on patient demographics, medication, medical history, allergies and contraindications, current problems, test results, GP encounters and vaccinations and immunisations.

The first IHR in Wales was developed by Graphnet and is used in Gwent out-of-hours service. A contract for second IHR roll-out was given to CSW, but it went into administration in 2008.

The agency said this had allowed it to reassess its options and make use of suppliers’ own proprietary solutions.