IT essential for new service frameworks

The government’s national service frameworks
will not be delivered without the implementation of the accompanying IT and
information strategy, a Department of Health official warned delegates.

“The IT and information strategy is absolutely
essential to the delivery of the national service frameworks,” said Anne
Fletcher, clinical governance information manager at the DoH’s information
policy unit. “It is hard to see how it would be delivered without it.”

Information strategies aim to enhance services
for users through the better use of information. They have already been
developed for the national service frameworks for cancer, mental health and
coronary heart disease, and are in the pipeline for older people and diabetes.

Fletcher said the department was planning
a review of how the strategies worked and how they linked with the frameworks.
“It may well be that we could integrate the information strategies into the
national service frameworks, which would be a very useful way forward,” she
added.