The Department of Health’s GP contract consultation response reiterated its desire to introduce the two DESs, despite GPC concerns that many practices are ill-equipped to offer online access and will find themselves further overstretched by the additional workload and the obligation to deliver the technology without additional funding. The GPC also warned that security and confidentiality issues need to be addressed before online access can be implemented broadly.
But the Government said that the planned ‘phased implementation’ of the online access DES - which will see patients being offered online booking of appointments and repeat prescriptions in the first phase and accessing test results and medical records online in the second - was sufficient to allay such concerns.
The DH said the GPC’s solution to combine the two DESs was rejected on the grounds it would not guarantee access to enough patients.
However, it also made a slight concession to the GPC around the telecare DES. It said: ‘The Department’s expectations have been modified in view of the consultation responses to reflect that preparatory work may need to take precedence in 2013/14 and that the focus may be on supporting a range of long term conditions rather than any single long term condition. However, this does not require changes to the legal directions to the Board.’
The NHS Commissioning Board is currently developing the detailed specifications for both new enhanced services.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Caroline Price
Quelle/Source: Pulse, 18.03.2013
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