Doctors concerned about progress of IT programme
Most GPs think electronic records will be less secure than the current
system |
Only 1.0 per cent of doctors believe that the National Programme for IT is making good progress, according to an independent poll of more than 1,300 doctors.
The survey, carried out by Medix between mid-December 2005 and early
January 2006, also revealed that doctors are concerned about patient
confidentiality, with 71 per cent of GPs and 46 per cent of other doctors
surveyed believing the electronic system for storing patient records
will be less secure than the current system. GPs were more positive about
electronic transmission of prescriptions, with 55 per cent rating it
as important or very important.
NHS Connecting for Health says that inevitably Medix has picked out the
most negative items in its overview and the survey also showed that 59
per cent of GPs and 66 per cent of hospital doctors believe that clinical
care will be significantly improved in the longer term by the NPfIT.
It adds that NHS CfH’s own MORI survey of a range of NHS staff
revealed that about 50 per cent are favourable towards the programme
and about a quarter are neutral. “It is well known that there is
usually a dip of confidence in IT change programmes as early implementation
gets under way — this is the phase that NHS Connecting for Health
is in,” it says. |
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