HC Deb 21 June 1996 vol 279 cc660-1W
Mr. Gapes

To ask the Secretary of State for Health by what procedure a hospital will be able to access the unique number for an NHS patient; if all hospitals will have such a procedure in place before the launch date of the project; and if he will make a statement. [33989]

Mr. Horam

An acute hospital will obtain the new national health service number for a patient from one of three possible sources: the number will be included in the general practitioner's referral letter; the number will already be present on the hospital's database if this is not the first referral; or the number will be accessed via a tracing service.

It is planned for all acute hospitals to have access to these facilities by April 1997.

Mr. Gapes

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the number and proportion of hospitals, and the number and proportion of general practitioner practices, which now have systems in place to handle the unique NHS patient number. [33990]

Mr. Horam

No detailed estimates have been prepared of the number of hospitals which have systems in place to handle the new national health service number. It will not be possible to produce reliable estimates until suppliers of hospital patient administration systems have been able to respond to the statement of requirements which will be issued shortly.

All general practitioner practices that have been linked electronically to their health authorities now have systems in place which handle the new NHS number. At the end of May 1996, the number of practices with this capability was 5,700, which is 67 per cent. of all practices.