Adrian,
The Lotus Notes system has been used up until now by the fundholding
Practices for the past three years. Its mainly used to pass messages
between Practices quickly and securely by e-mail.This enabled the Group to
become a more cohesive unit and it showed the importance of effective
communication which will be required in the new era of PCGs.
The new upgrade will make available more advanced functions (as outlined in
a previous e-mail) and is viewed by Primary Care as a sort of stepping
stone to address some of the issues that we would like to see resolved, for
example timely recipt of consultant’s letters.
The Lotus Notes system and its use in Primary Care was the brainchild of Dr
Amrit Takhar ([log in to unmask]). It has essentially been developed and
used by Primary Care Doctors and Managers.To that extent, we did not
specifically select Lotus Notes as the preferred solution,rather we started
using it,saw that it was effective and when the upgrade came along realised
that it was worthwhile staying with given the generally good reception it
received from users.The IT bods at the HA are happy with the technical side
and have supported us by making a relatively small financial contribution,
despite the fact that they appear to be fans of Microsoft.
Clearly there is still a long way to go,but at least some progress is being
made. As regards PCGS,the availability of Lotus Notes in all Practices will
be an invaluable tool in respect of communications(far better than phoning
or faxing!).
I suppose if Practices can access the internet then more people may
subscribe to GP-UK.That in itself ought to please Ahmad!
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