§ Mr. Austin MitchellTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will increase the number of doctors in practice to make up any shortfall in the NHS as the integrated care record system is introduced. [142705]
§ Mr. HuttonThere will not be a need to increase the number of doctors in practice in the National Health Service as a consequence of the introduction of the integrated care record system. The system will in fact produce efficiency savings for clinicians across the NHS. For example, summaries of records will be available across the whole of the NHS along with the necessary information to support clinical decisions.
Some of the areas where doctors will save time include:
Summarising records which are transferred by post between general practitioner practices;Having to read through large quantities of unsorted information prior to conducting consultations;Waiting for paper based information including results to be transferred around hospitals and between trusts to facilitate clinical decisions;Re-typing and re-entering information which has already been captured electronically elsewhere in the NHS.