§ Andrew GeorgeTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has for the future commissioning and use of transmitted clinical images as binary code for the purpose of remote diagnosis by specialist consultants. [16454]
§ Jacqui Smith"Information for Health", the information strategy for the national health service published in 1998, required each health authority to consider the potential for telemedicine as part of their annual health improvement programmes. The decision to
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£ million (rounded) 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–021 2002–032 Neighbourhood Support Fund3 — 3 11 19 19 Education Action Zones 10 24 57 — — Community Champions4 — — 1 3 3 Healthy Schools Programme — — 6 6 — 1 Estimated 2 Plans 3 Neighbourhood Support Fund expenditure for 2003–04 is planned to be £6,000,000 4 The figures for Community Champions in 2001–02 and 2002–03 include £1 million from the Home Office Active Community Unit deploy facilities such as picture and archiving systems would be a local one based on clinical need and cost effectiveness.
§ Andrew GeorgeTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the future uses of new technology to conduct clinical examinations remotely and to allow specialist consultants to consult with colleagues at another hospital. [16453]
§ Jacqui SmithA national programme of information and communication technology demonstrator projects was announced in 2000. Many of these projects are assessing telemedicine applications in the context of clinical and cost effectiveness. The projects are due to report in June 2002.