In Somerset we are starting to look at the technical aspects of
electronic comms. What can people recommend in the way of reading
around this subject please?
And more importantly, what are different areas doing to develop their
electronic comms? At a meeting today, the following questions were
discussed:
Why is SMTP mail being installed on NHS Net when X400 which is already
installed seems to be more reliable, more confidential and gives notice
that mail has been received?
How will individual practices route their NHS Net mail. What are the
pros and cons of having the mail router based in BT Syntegra, in the
Health Authority, in the PCG or where else? Should the X400 address of
a practice be based on the practice name, on the PCG name or something
else? Is there a national policy on this?
ISDN connections will be made to all PCGs and practices joining NHS Net.
The minimum available ISDN connection is ISDN2 (2 pipes of access
between surgery and telephone exchange). PCGs will have a permanent
connection with NHS Net down one of the pipes (68K is considered
sufficient so the other 68K pipe won't be used for the NHS Net
connection). What happens to the other pipe? Can it be used for the
PCG voice phone connection, or for a fax connection? Can an outside
hacker (presumably using an ISDN router at their end) connect into the
PCG via the non NHS Net pipe, and then connect out to the NHS Net down
the NHS Net pipe? What are the similar implications for a big practice
that already has an ISDN30 connection mixing data and voice connections.
You can see from this that the meeting produced considerable confusion,
particularly in me! All help with clarification would be gratefully
accepted, as would your experiences in your patch.
--
Paul J Scott, Primary Care Physician, United Kingdom.
Fax 44 (0)1935 410188
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