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Informing healthcare - Wales

Informing Healthcare is the National Information Technology Programme in Wales with a vision of greater integration of information across health and social care to deliver a better standard of care to patients. The programme structure is based on a series of improvement projects including:

• Individual health record for each patient
• Access to IT (A2IT) which aims to ensure that all healthcare staff have access to IT by investing in laptops and computers
• Access to Knowledge (A2K) to ensure that staff can access knowledge and evidence. Following user research a national e-library will be procured.
• Referral and Discharges – to improve the quality, timeliness and completeness of referral and discharge information by setting up electronic processes
• Results requesting and reporting – to improve pathology and radiology processes
• Myhealth on line – to enable patients to have access to their own Individual health record
• Network improvements

In January 2006, the second edition of the National Case for the Informing Healthcare Programme was published following the National Architecture Conference in September 2005.

The paper provides further details about the Individual Health Record (IHR). It is intended that the record will contain key information as follows:

• Personal details – including demographics and eventually details such as special needs, primary language, important friends and relatives etc
• Care relationships - including informal carers such as friends or family as well as clinicians
• Health events, such as operations and appointments; and health status

The record is intended to be a ‘snapshot’ of the individual’s current health and care’ rather than an all inclusive record. Initially, focus will be on making the record available to support out of hours GP services and a pilot is currently in progress.

The BMA has established a cross craft Welsh IT sub committee. The main issues considered by the group have included funding, data quality, integration of systems, consent, dealing with sensitive data and the interface with the rest of the UK.

The membership of the committee is as follows:

Dr. Tony Calland – Chair
Mr. John Llewelyn – Chair of Welsh Consultants Committee
Mr. Richard Hatfield – Deputy Chairman of Welsh Consultants Committee
Dr. Ian Millington – GPC Wales
Dr. Richard Lewis – Welsh Secretary
Dr. Martin Murphy, Clinical Director, Informing Healthcare Wales
Mr. Martin Dickinson - Programme Director, Primary Care, WAG