Information society : agenda for action in the UK : evidence received after 31 March 1996 / Select Committee on Science and Technology.
- Great Britain. Parliament. House of Lords. Science and Technology Committee.
- Date:
- 1996
Licence: Open Government Licence
Credit: Information society : agenda for action in the UK : evidence received after 31 March 1996 / Select Committee on Science and Technology. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![16 April 1996] [ Continued ultrasound images from the Isle of Wight. lecture theatres. and piloting: — distance learning/training services. as Cytovision. — electronic journals such as Nature. medical students. primarily to Saudi Arabia. make normal healthcare delivery impossible. January 1996 Chairman 433. Mr Rogers, Mr King, you have heard what the BMA had to tell us. I wonder whether you would like to introduce yourselves and make some preliminary statement? (Mr Rogers) My name is Ray Rogers, I head up the Information Management Group of the NHS Executive and as such I am responsible for the creation of strategy, the implementation of strategy, in the NHS for all aspects of information technology and information. Tony King is the Director within my Group who is responsible for aspects of telecommunications and in that respect, of course, is responsible for the NHS wide networking system. What I would like to do, if it would be useful to your Lordships, is first of all to indicate what we believe are the advantages of having an NHS wide system of networking of the type we are creating and then to inform your Lordships of just how far we have currently got. First, I should say that you cannot, I believe, realise the sorts of benefits you have just heard of, nor the benefits that I would like to outline, unless you have a clear infrastructure within the NHS. That is much more that having a system of NHS wide networking, it does mean having a clear Statement about the standards which you expect computers to comply with if they are to intercommunicate, standards for technical matters, data definitions, codes for clinical terms and administrative data, message standards and have the unique identification of people through a new NHS number etc., etc. I have no intention of talking about that part of the infrastructure but all I have to say is underpinned by a lot of activity of that nature and I would be happy to talk about it if you wish me to. As to the advantages of having a modern NHS wide system of networking in the NHS, I think it comes under a number of headings. The first and most important one, of course, is direct care of the individual. I can only give one or two examples under each heading to indicate what I mean by that. For example, for the GP to get the result from a hospital as soon as it has been produced in the hospital from pathology or radiology, for example, this is what we are about at the present time. It is clearly advantageous to have an on-line booking of an outpatient’s appointment, that is something I think the NHS needs to have. If you can book a holiday anywhere in the world then it is about time that you can book an outpatient’s appointment before you leave the GP’s surgery. Also, for example, to have GPs able to access their own computer systems when they have a portable computer in a patient’s home is another example of direct advantage to the patients. There are enormous advantages to efficiency and I](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b32218631_0026.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
