PCTI developing GP automation system

Document management specialists PCTI have announced that they are developing a new system to help GP practices in England respond to the changes outlined in the government’s white paper.

PCTI said Back Office for Docman will be a comprehensive practice management system that will provide a suite of applications to enable GP practices to manage everything from administrative tasks and data through to legislative compliance information.

The coalition government’s white paper, Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS, outlines plans for practices to take a much greater role in running the NHS with all GP practices required to be members of GP consortia which will be given control of 80% of the NHS budget. The first pathfinder consortia are due to start work next year.

PCTI said it had undertaken “ a significant investment project” to develop Back Office for Docman which is said would provide a greater level of automation around practices’ back office tasks and help with their new role within GP consortia.

The company said the tool would also provide much needed communication and collaboration tools for commissioning groups to deliver the tasks outlined in the white paper.

Rich Thompson, managing director of PCTI, added: “Back Office for Docman is a major new investment for PCTI which I believe will deliver a more innovative and efficient way for managing practices whilst providing a wider collaborative platform to support newly formed commissioning groups.

“The technology is an extension of our popular Docman solution and will provide critical efficiency gains for practices.”

PCTI’s electronic document management solution is used by 5,000 GP practices in the UK and the company said Docman’s non- clinical EDM was used by the majority of its practices.

The company said the first version of Back Office for Docman would be piloted early next year.