The
technology will also help prevent never events - those deemed so serious
they should never happen, including leaving surgical equipment inside a
patient during an operation.
Mr Kelsey will today say the NHS is ready to implement the new plans.
He
will outline a time frame by which every clinical commissioning group
(CCG) must deliver their plans to eradicate the use of paper.
And
he will provide clarity on what is expected, issuing a set of key
digital standards that healthcare providers must implement as part of
their standard NHS contract.
We
need to consign to the dustbin of history the industry in referral
letters, the outdated use of fax machines and the trolleys groaning with
patients' notes. As well as saving precious resources, technology can
dramatically reduce errors
Tim Kelsey, NHS England's national director for patients and information
By
October, all discharge summaries for patients transferring from
hospital to the care of their GP must be completed electronically.
NHS
England said: 'This will help to ensure that a patient's transition out
of hospital is as smooth and safe as possible and enable doctors and
nurses to care for them more effectively straight away.'
Next year, this will be broadened out to include discharge to social care.
Trials
have shown that giving GPs instant access to discharge summaries online
reduces the risk of error, allowing doctors to immediately see what
drugs their patients are on and what procedures they have had while in
hospital.
The
Government estimates the cost of storing and moving paper around the
NHS is between £500,000 to £1 million for each trust - money which they
say could be better invested in more doctors and nurses.
'Every
day, care is held up and patients are kept waiting while an army of
people transport and store huge quantities of paper round our healthcare
system,' Mr Kelsey will say.
'This approach is past its sell by date.
'We
need to consign to the dustbin of history the industry in referral
letters, the outdated use of fax machines and the trolleys groaning with
patients' notes.
'As
well as saving precious resources, technology can dramatically reduce
errors. Urgent action is a moral imperative where paper is the currency
of clinical practice.'
The health service aims to become
paper-free at the point of care within the next five years. It means
when patients turn up at appointments in both primary and secondary
care, medics will have immediate access to their history, clinical notes
and test results
He will add: 'The NHS needs to get over the idea that we've had too many false starts and we can't do technology.
'While
bringing our own systems into the digital age, we must do more to help
the public and clinicians take advantage of the game-changing
opportunities on offer to improve outcomes for patients.'
Last
autumn, the NHS set out its bold vision for the future, outlining the
change needed to bring the health service into the 21st century.
It included a more effective use of technology and data to support new and improved models for delivering patient care.
Health bosses say the evidence for digitalised records improving patient safety is 'clear'.
They
point to the example of electronic prescribing systems, which support
clinicians to ensure the right medication is provided to the right
patient in the right dosage.
Those systems have halved medication errors, yet only 14 per cent of NHS trusts currently use the technology.
In
addition, a study published in the British Medical Journal, found that
death rates at two major hospitals fell by more than 15 per cent when
nurses were given handheld computers to monitor patients' vital signs.
The
drop in mortality represented more than 750 lives saved in a single
year across the two sites, which could equate to tens of thousands of
lives across the NHS.
