§ Mr. MilburnTo ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to his answer of 2 July, Official Report, column 371, what action the NHS executive has taken about the year 2000 problem. [36738]
§ Mr. HoramThe national health service executive has established a project team which is responsible for providing technical guidance and advice on site audits. including briefing notes and a telephone help line. NHS organisations are being alerted to the problems and will shortly be required to draw up action plans. Progress against these plans will be monitored by the NHS executive.
§ Mr. MorganTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what research he has carried out into the compatibility of the Read Codes 3 medical terms language with ICD-10; what assessment he has made of the importance to the NHS of compatibility between ICD-10 and medical terms computer languages used in the NHS; if he will place a copy in the Library of his Department's research into compatibility issues; and if he will make a statement. [36671]
§ Mr. HoramRead codes to international classification of disease maps are national standard cross references from Read codes to the ICD classification. The cross mappings in Read version 3 have been the subject of a large validation project that involved clinicians, academics and expert coders. The underlying philosophy was the product of extensive consultation. This is documented in "Cross-Mapping in Version 3 of the Read Codes" (F60 15), copies of which will be placed with the Library.
Validation of the Read version 3 maps was undertaken using expert clinical coders. Both the methodology and its findings were signed off as acceptable by the NHS centre for coding and classification classifications projects board.
"Medical terms computer languages used in the NHS" can be regarded as: (i) Read terms which provide the detail necessary for clinicians to capture clinical information in computers; (ii) ICD-10 which provides the analytical classification for central returns; and (iii) healthcare resource groups which provide information necessary for costing and resource management. For those seeking to derive ICD-10 central returns from data captured in Read codes, a cross map is essential. Healthcare resource groups are now expressed in ICD-10 terms but, through the cross map, can be derived from Read data.
§ Mr. MilburnTo ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to his answer of 2 July, Official Report, column 371, on the NHS executive and the year 2000 problem, what initial assessment he has made of the likely impact 278W of the millennium; what have been the costs of the initial assessment; what is the budget for future work; and who is undertaking this research. [36739]
§ Mr. HoramAn initial analysis of typical applications which could be affected has already shown that for many systems there are no problems. These systems are capable of handling the change of millennium or the suppliers are in the process of making them so. A number of other systems will have reached the end of their lifetimes before 2000 and will be replaced by systems with the correct software. The remaining systems must be considered on a case-by-case basis.
A project team has recently been set up and its costs so far are minimal. The projected costs of this project team are £50,000. Costs for the audit of systems within each national health service organisation are the responsibility of that organisation. When such audits have been completed, it will be possible to determine the full costs of rectifying the systems.
The work is being undertaken by the information management group of the NHS executive with the assistance of external consultants.
§ Mr. MorganTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list each evaluation(a) conducted and (b) commissioned by his Department into the efficacy of the Read 3 coding system; indicating for each the date and category of author; and if he will place these in the Library. [36674]
§ Mr. HoramThe first release of version 3 of the Read codes deemed suitable for evaluation and testing in live use in a clinical setting was in October 1995 followed by an update in April 1996.
Evaluation in use of the efficacy of these releases has commenced at several sites and I refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave him on 2 May, Official Report, column 608.
§ Mr. MorganTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what guidelines he has issued concerning the mandatory use of ICD-10 in hospital returns; and what proposals he has to amend these guidelines. [36670]
§ Mr. HoramThe use of ICD-10—International Classification of Diseases version 10—for defining diagnostic information in central returns and contract minimum data sets was made mandatory for England and Wales from 1 April 1995. Key guidance supplied to the national health service was provided by executive letter (EL(93)63) "The introduction of ICD-10 into the NHS", data set change notice (DSCN 20/93) which mandated the use of ICD-10 in the NHS for statistical returns and DSCN 41/941P28 which detailed relevant clinical coding standards for the use of ICD-10. Copies of these reports have been placed in the Library.
The executive letter allows the capture of data using Read codes and cross mapping to ICD-10 for central returns. There are no plans to alter this arrangement in the immediate future.