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Mary Hawking wrote:
> In message <B1F6747E34054C7CAC17DAB4F942B7C8@CherrysLaptop>, Cherry
> Cullen <[log in to unmask]> writes
> 
>> But is the NHS central register up to date?
> 
> I'm getting confused.
> Are we talking about PDS, or is there another Central Registry database
> in addition to  PDS? If so, what is the relationship between them?
> (Genuine ignorance here - I thought the old multiple unconnected
> database problem had finally been sorted!)


PDS is a registry, no?

And central?


The central registry is a concept, rather than anything so boringly
concrete as the particular name applied this week under this month's
once in a generation reform of the health service to one particular
specific implementation or instantiation of that concept in software,
hardware or administration.



> PDS is supposed to be updated every time a patient is called up if the
> person at the terminal is logged on with a smart card, and every time a
> patient changes details at a practice, regardless of whether this is a
> new registration.
> Wasn't all this automated when GP Registration Links was introduced in
> the mid '90s?

Someone will be wanting to be paid for doing it all over again from the
1980s data then I expect by now, and someone will be wanting to spend 3
years in their post negotiating over it and supervising the
implementation before retiring to a job with the prime contractor.


> There are even more implications here, both for legal liabilities
> (previously patients were the responsibility of the *registering* doctor
> if no-one else could be fingered: how does this work now?) and for
> partnership splits. (When patients were registered with individual
> doctors, there were a number of cases where a GP joined a partnership -
> and left with his/her registered list as soon as that list was large
> enough - often after being allocated a share of an existing list): what
> happens in a split when the patients are all registered with the practice?

That one is easy, for managerial convenience, splitting a practice has
been rendered more difficult.

> As to when the organisation in the PCTs and PDS will catch up with the
> change in organisation, have patience! It's only been 5 years: can't
> expect miracles!


Organisational changes are largely independent of the organisation and
its activity.


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