§ John MannTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has to develop an infrastructure for secure electronic health data communications. [62356]
§ Ms BlearsThe NHS Plan set the context for the major modernisation of the national health service in England. It clearly sets out a vision of a health service designed around the patient, and which enables integrated care to be delivered by a range of organisations. The commitments of the NHS Plan to new ways of working can only be achieved through the well-planned implementation of an information technology (IT) and systems infrastructure.
In line with the. NHS Plan, and in response to feedback from the NHS and the supplier community, we are introducing a far more robust approach to standardisation. An infrastructure based on universal internet technology, government-wide standards and those developed specifically to meet the needs of the NHS will give all staff the means to access the right information in the right places at the right time.
Subject to approval of funding and spending plans from April 2002 to April 2003 we will work on developing the NHS' IT management structure, capacity and capability. We will also define the data, and data interchange standards we will require in the future. We will build the essential
Name Mrs. Ruth Popple Chair, Carlisle and District Primary Care Trust Mr. Graham Ogden Chief Executive, Carlisle and District Primary Care Trust Mr. Allan Buckley Vice Chair, Eden Valley Primary Care Trust Mr. Peter Kohn Chief Executive, Eden Valley Primary Care Trust Mr. Doug Scott Director of Planning, Eden Valley Primary Care Trust Mr. Patrick Everingham (chair) Chair, West Cumbria Primary Care Trust Ms Veronica Marsden Chief Executive, West Cumbria Primary Care Trust Cllr Barbara Cannon Chair, North Cumbria Acute Hospitals Trust Mr. Nick Wood Chief Executive, North Cumbria Acute Hospitals Trust Mr. Eric Urquhart Chair, North Cumbria Mental Health and Learning Disabilities Trust Mr. Brian Clayton Chair, Cumbria Ambulance Service NHS Trust Mr. Alan Donkersley Chief Executive, Cumbria Ambulance Service NHS Trust Mr. John Cain Environmental Health Officer, Allerdale Borough Council Cllr C. McCarron-Holmes Executive Member, Allerdale Borough Council Cllr Ray Bloxham (Vice Chair) Portfolio Holder Health, Carlisle City Council Mr. Laurie Brewis Head of Housing Provision, Carlisle City Council Mr. John Stanforth General Manager, Copeland Borough Council Cllr Brian Dixon Executive Member, Copeland Borough Council Mr. Louis Victory Chief Executive, Cumbria County Council Cllr John Mallinson Executive Member, Cumbria County Council Mr. Mike Siegal Director of Social Services, Cumbria County Council Mr. Ruth Atkinson Policy and Strategy Manager, Eden District Council Cllr Bryan Metz Executive Member, Eden District Council Mrs. Jessica Riddle Chair, Carlisle Council for Voluntary Service Mrs. Pat Black Chair, Eden Council for Voluntary Service Mrs. Kay Pitchford Chair, West Cumbria Council for Voluntary Service Mrs. Elaine Steven Chair, East Cumbria Community Health Council Mrs. Jennifer Drouet Chair, West Cumbria Community Health Council Mr. Tony Potter North Cumbria Health Action Zone Note:
A nomination for a director of public health for the North Cumbria Primary Care Trusts has not yet been confirmed.
1082Wsystem specifications to deliver the national health record service. We will also develop the infrastructure, including broadband capacity, needed to lay the basis for key applications.
Subject to approval of funding and spending plans, between April 2003 and April 2005 we plan to put in place
Broadband access (more than I 28kbs) to every clinician and support staff in the NHSincreased bandwidth to minimum—2Mbps between trusts and across NHS Net GatewaysAccess and authentication available for all NHS staffNational NHS directory serviceDomain to domain encryption.Subject to approval of business cases, formal open procurement exercises are planned for NHS networking services (to replace the existing framework contracts that expire in 2003–04), and for NHS public key infrastructure services.