Mary Hawking honoured

Mary Hawking (right) receiving the 2009 John Perry Prize from Joan Perry

Dr Mary Hawking, a GP in Bedfordshire and a long-standing healthcare IT campaigner, has been awarded the 2009 John Perry Prize by the British Computer Society’s Primary Health Care Specialist Group.

The prize was given to Dr Hawking for behind the scenes work that led to the creation of shared record guidance that was published earlier this year.

It was presented to Dr Hawking by John Perry’s widow, Joan, at the PHCSG’s annual conference.

Dr Hawking told EHI Primary Care that she was “extremely honoured and very happy” to receive the award, which is made in recognition of an outstanding contribution to primary care computing.

Roz Foad, chair of the PHCSG, said Dr Hawking had been an enthusiastic member of the group for many years and it was delighted to recognise her efforts.

She added: “Mary has campaigned tirelessly to maintain the integrity and confidentiality of GP and primary care records over the years, and is continuing to campaign for improvements in data quality across all healthcare environments.”

Dr Hawking said her involvement in primary care computing issues had started after a failed Read Code conversion on her practice’s computer system in the early 1990s.

Since then, the issues she has successfully tackled include getting NHS Connecting for Health to change its Acceptable Use Policy for smartcard users to take account the needs of GP practices; making sure that patients who want their details withheld from the Personal Demographics Service are not denied access to NHS services; and instituting the creation of shared care record guidelines from the Royal College of GPs.

Dr Hawking told EHI Primary Care that she is continuing to consider the ramifications of single systems, as well as focusing more generally on data quality.

A full interview with Dr Hawking will appear later this week.