§ Mr. ToddTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will review the requirement on general practitioners to maintain manual notes on patients so as to allow more efficient alternatives. [28115]
§ Mr. MilburnThe Department has been discussing with the General Medical Services Committee of the British Medical Association a proposed change to the National Health Service (General Medical Services) Regulations 1992 which would have allowed general practitioners (GPs) to maintain patient records on a computer as an alternative to manual records. The profession have requested that further work is done to develop a standardised electronic patient record and to facilitate the transfer of patient records electronically from GP to GP before the requirement to maintain records manually is removed. We will consider changing this requirement once work in these ares is suitably advanced.