Mike Wells wrote:
>
> I would recommend that the
> entire records for a patient who is no longer registered with a GP
> should be be retained off line and accessible only by manual
> intervention by a clinician (his duly authorised deputy). My
> argument is that the extent to which such data might be relevant in
> future is unpredictable, that the costs of retaining it in this
> form are very small, and that the risks to patient confidentiality
> are also very small.
For most of us it will actually be much easier to store the data
ON-line. There is no good way for data to be archived in the Vamp
System, and then readily retrieved, and of course this means that any
historic searches of your data for e.g. incidence of certain diagnoses,
changing patterns in prescribing, will be invalid (or certainly less
valid). The cost of storing data on-line is dropping rapidly, and this
is likely to continue for many years to come. This is not to say that it
isn't a good idea to archive data, but it is way down the list of
enhancements that we would like to see in our systems (We have actually
decided this in the Vamp User Group Medical Software Panel)
Dr Laurie Miles
GP, St Helens
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