It’s been a week of significant developments in primary care IT. England’s two major GP clinical system suppliers are really, finally, on the cusp of trialling direct integration between their systems. This is a major development for the two traditional rivals, Emis and TPP, and one that should make it much easier for GPs to share records.

Meantime, Digital Health News has learned that the first integration projects have taken place between ‘subsidiary’ and ‘principal’ GP system suppliers. These first integrations, between Medibooks from Total Billing Solutions and TPP, and My RightCare and Emis Health, are not, perhaps, headline grabbing in themselves.

But they have big implications as the first fruit of the ‘pairing’ programme set up by the Health and Social Care Information Centre. This is taking forward the GP Systems of Choice requirement for suppliers to create a far more open market, in which smaller players can deliver new services for GP system users – and, eventually, their patients.

A similar move in the acute market might make some of the government’s reform and patient empowerment objectives much easier to achieve; but there’s nothing like the GPSoC lever, and little to report on the standards and accreditation front. A subject for discussion at EHI Live 2015, perhaps?

Record sharing: TPP and Emis integrate

England’s two major GP clinical system suppliers are about to begin trialling a direct integration between their systems to allow GPs to share patient records more easily.

First GPSoC integrations live

Two subsidiary GP systems suppliers have integrated their systems with those of principal suppliers for the first time under the latest GP Systems of Choice framework.

Pharmacy fined for selling patient data

An online pharmacy part-owned by Emis Health faces a £130,000 fine after it sold customer details to a direct marketing company.

Barcoded medicines to prevent fake drugs

New European regulations mean that all prescription medicines will need to carry a barcode on their packaging to reduce the risk of counterfeit and unsafe drugs entering the healthcare system.

English hospital live with InterSystems

InterSystems’ electronic patient record system TrakCare has gone live in an English NHS trust for the first time.

CSC urges trusts off 'ancient' PAS

Healthcare computing company CSC may be looking to halt support for one of its oldest patient administration systems.

Electronic observations at Southampton

Paper patient charts will be replaced by iPod Touch devices when a new electronic observations system is introduced in Southampton hospitals next month.

The election of comrade Corbyn as leader of the Labour Party has led to the spectacularly huffy resignation of Lord Norman Warner. Warner, a former civil servant who was in charge of NHS delivery and reform from 2005-6, announced that he was giving up the party whip because Labour was “no longer a credible party of government in waiting.”

Few Labourites wept over the departure of a man whose time in office was marked by enthusiasm for market-based reforms and the reintroduction of GP commissioning. But Digital Health News readers may feel some sympathy for a man who had to deal with the National Programme for IT, its first director general Richard Granger – “whose naturally combative approach only attracted more gunfire” - and Accenture – whose North, Midlands and East negotiator Warner described as “looking as though he was auditioning for the Sopranos.”

Anyone interested on his views of how to reform the NHS today can still find his book, ‘A Suitable Case for Treatment’ on Amazon. Reviews are mixed.

“An upgrade to shiny Pentium 75 will no doubt boost performance significantly, and you can use that Windows 3.11 that everybody is getting so excited about.”

“Put simply, a reputable company has made a serious error of judgement and today faces the consequences of that.”

The Information Commissioner’s Office warns online Pharmacy2U that it faces a six figure fine after selling customer details to a direct marketing company.