Additional information for pharmacy and digital medicines professionals – May 2023

Use NHS Service Finder to find bank holiday opening hours

You can use NHS Service Finder to help your patients access the best care as opening hours change over the bank holidays.

NHS Service Finder allows health and care professionals to quickly locate nearby NHS services, check opening times and access other non-public information. It also provides directions and maps which can be shared with patients.

Sign in or create your account.

 

Help us understand your referral process

The NHS e-Referral Service (e-RS) wants to hear from pharmacy professionals providing NHS services to better understand how you make and manage patient referrals.

We are looking for user research participants who make any type of NHS referrals, especially those who don’t already use e-RS, to help us identify how the service could be used by more health professionals in the future.

Complete the short online survey or contact Emily West for more information.

 

 

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Additional information for technology suppliers – April 2023

Retiring the Care Identity Service

We are retiring the Care Identity Service (CIS), which is used by health and care professionals in England to securely access national clinical systems.

It’s being replaced by the Care Identity Service 2 (CIS2). The new service will enable internet-first access and allow new methods of authentication beyond smartcards.

The Access Group, EPIC, Medicus, Dedalus and InterSystems are already using CIS2 with some of their sites and that other system providers are well on their way to switching.  

View our new deprecation timeline and onboarding guidance to start planning now for the change.

 

Event: NHS Spine Futures supplier webinar

Join the NHS England Spine Futures programme as we host the third in our series of supplier webinars at 2pm on 17 May 2023. At this session we will explore the latest programme roadmap and expansion of our plans to transition Spine services to the cloud. Please join us and understand what this means for you – suppliers who are already connected to Spine services will find this of particular interest.

To attend, please register your details.

At our previous sessions we provided updates on our latest product developments, including National Record Locator (NRL), Message Exchange for Social Care and Health (MESH) and integration with bookings and referrals (BARS). You can access the recordings by clicking the links below:

Spine Futures supplier webinar December 2022

Spine Futures supplier webinar February 2023

 

Blog: What does the future NHS Spine look like?

Shan Rahulan, Director of Core Services, and Mark Burton, Lead Delivery Manager, describe plans to modernise the Spine platform and invite IT professionals to help shape the future.

 

Our API Developer Community is growing

Thasmim Ali, Product Owner of our API Developer Community, talks about how we’ve improved support for teams integrating with our products and services – and outlines our next steps.

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Additional information for GP practice managers – April 2023

Support for switching on access to GP records

Changes to the 2023/24 GP Contract requires all GP practices to give their patients online access to new entries in their health record by 31 October 2023. 1 in 5 practices have done so already.

We offer a range of resources and guidance to help everybody in your practice understand this change and get ready for it, including a GP checklist and how-to videos.

You can also watch a webinar, where early adopter practices share their experiences and top tips, and read a case study about how to safeguard patients who might be at risk of harm or distress from having access to their health record.

When you’re ready to switch on access in your practice, please email our Implementation team who will support you through the process.

 

Try the National Care Records Service today

The National Care Records Service (NCRS) is replacing the Summary Care Record application (SCRa).

All SCRa users will need to switch to NCRS before 29 September 2023. The switchover to NCRS is quick and simple, and with the right software installed on the users’ device it can be as easy as changing a web link.

NCRS provides a quick, secure way to access national patient information and it is free to use. Find out how to make the switch.

 

Retiring the Care Identity Service

We are retiring the Care Identity Service (CIS), which is used by health and care professionals in England to securely access national clinical systems.

It’s being replaced by the Care Identity Service 2 (CIS2). The new service will enable internet-first access and allow new methods of authentication beyond smartcards.

IT suppliers are also updating their products to use CIS2 and national services, including the NHS e-Referral Service, will move to it by September 2023. Services will be contacting their users about the switchover and any actions they need to take.

 

Help us improve the Buying Catalogue

The Buying Catalogue provides a shop window to view and procure centrally-assured, clinical IT systems.

We’re inviting primary care professionals responsible for the procurement of IT solutions to provide feedback and help shape the functionality of the catalogue. This will help us make the Buying Catalogue more user-friendly and intuitive.

If you're interested, please complete this short 2-minute survey or contact us directly.

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Additional information for digital leaders – April 2023

Try the National Care Records Service today

The National Care Records Service (NCRS) is replacing the Summary Care Record application (SCRa).

All SCRa users will need to switch to NCRS before 29 September 2023. The switchover to NCRS is quick and simple with the right software installed on the users’ device, it can be as easy as changing a web link.

NCRS provides a quick, secure way to access national patient information and it is free to use. Find out how to make the switch.

 

Retiring the Care Identity Service

We are retiring the Care Identity Service (CIS), which is used by health and care professionals in England to securely access national clinical systems.

It’s being replaced by the Care Identity Service 2 (CIS2). The new service will enable internet-first access and allow new methods of authentication beyond smartcards.

IT suppliers are also updating their products to use CIS2, and national services, including the NHS e-Referral Service, will move to it by September 2023. Services will be contacting their users about the switchover and any actions they need to take.

Find out more.

 

Do you use SNOMED CT in your secondary care organisation?

We want to understand the experience and current burden of using and maintaining the SNOMED CT terminology and its related value sets across secondary care settings in England. This will inform our development of a future SNOMED CT strategy.

Please help by completing this survey, which closes on 14 April 2023.

 

Applications open for the Digital Health Leadership Programme

The NHS Digital Academy’s Digital Health Leadership Programme is now open to applicants employed in England.

The programme is a centrally funded, 12-month fully accredited postgraduate diploma (PGDip) in Digital Health Leadership delivered by Imperial College London and partners.

You can join a webinar to find out more about the application process and assessment criteria. Applications close on 14 May 2023.

 

Blog: What does the future NHS Spine look like?

Shan Rahulan and Mark Burton describe plans to modernise the Spine platform and invite IT professionals to help shape the future.

 

Blog: Our API Developer Community is growing

Thasmim Ali, Product Owner of our API Developer Community, talks about how we’ve improved support for teams integrating with our products and services – and outlines our next steps.

 

Video: Supporting the digital workforce

NHS England’s Director of Digital Workforce, Yinka Makinde, reflects on the achievements made during the Year of the Digital Profession, and looks ahead to the upcoming Digital Workforce Plan that aims to narrow the skills gap between digital, data, technology and clinical informatics roles in health and care.

 

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For action: Do you use the VMP ‘<Drug_Form>’ attribute in the NHS dm+d?

We want to find out how users of NHS Dictionary of Medicines and Devices (dm+d) data use the virtual medicinal product (VMP) <DRUG_FORM> field. Please complete this survey, which closes on Wednesday 5 April 2023.

Find out more about how UK Medicines Terminology Futures programme is updating the NHS dm+d forms.

 

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For information: National services to help this Easter

To help reduce calls to your practice and 111, please encourage patients to manage their repeat prescriptions before the use the  Easter bank holiday weekend.

Your patients may be able to order these through a number of different apps and online services. The NHS App is a single place where they can:

  • find pharmacy bank holiday opening times using the ‘Find services near you’ feature
  • change their nominated pharmacy to a location convenient to them
  • request their repeat prescriptions

You can signpost your patients to the online help and support if they have questions about using the NHS App.

Health and care professionals can use NHS Service Finder to quickly locate nearby NHS services, check opening times and access other non-public information. It also provides directions and maps which can be shared with patients.

Sign in or create your account.

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For information: National services to help this Easter

To help reduce calls to GP practices and 111, please encourage patients to manage their repeat prescriptions before the Easter bank holiday weekend. 

Your patients may be able to order these through a number of different apps and online services. The NHS App is a single place where they can:

  • find pharmacy bank holiday opening times using the ‘Find services near you’ feature
  • change their nominated pharmacy to a location convenient to them
  • request their repeat prescriptions

You can signpost your patients to the online help and support if they have questions about using the NHS App.

Health and care professionals can use NHS Service Finder to quickly locate nearby NHS services, check opening times and access other non-public information. It also provides directions and maps which can be shared with patients.

Sign in or create your account.

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As of 31st March 2024, NHS CIS2 will no longer work in IE11 and Edge “IE Mode”

In line with NHS England standards for web-based products, you will find that NHS CIS2 does not work if you try access it using Internet Explorer after 31 March 2024.  

This includes:

  • Apply for Care ID
  • Care Identity Management
  • Care Identity Authentication

Using unsupported systems makes your organisation more vulnerable to cyber security threats and makes it more likely that you’ll experience performance or reliability issues.

It is the responsibility of individual organisations to make sure their teams are using supported products.  

If you use NHS CIS2 for your work

You may need to contact your local IT service desk to find out more about your organisation’s plan to switch off Internet Explorer and to ensure continued access to our services. 

If you are responsible for managing IT in a health or care organisation

You should make sure you have a plan in place to withdraw Internet Explorer from your IT estate and install NHS Credential Management (HSCN connection required) for any users who require access to national NHS systems which require authentication.   

Some alternative options are:

  • Use IE11 for the apps that require it, allow users to have a second user-agent (e.g. Edgium/Chromium) for other applications. 
  • If "IE Mode" is being used, then only enable "IE Mode" for the applications that require it

If you can't move off of IE11 by 31 March 2024, you need to contact us to discuss your situation.

Contact us by email on nhscareidentityauthentication@nhs.net.

Include details about your Organisation, IT contacts and reasons why you feel you cannot switch from IE11 / IE Mode.

 

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Consultation launched on sharing data from private healthcare providers with NHS

Plans to create a single source of healthcare data in England to improve the quality of care for patients are the focus of a consultation which is part of the Acute Data Alignment Programme (ADAPt).

The programme would result in NHS-funded and private healthcare activity data being available in one place for the first time, offering a more comprehensive insight into the quality of treatment and care across both the NHS and private healthcare settings.

The consultation, which is open until 20 April 2023, comes after the Paterson Inquiry recommended bringing data on all consultant activity together in the same place. This followed the conviction of breast cancer surgeon Ian Paterson for performing harmful and unnecessary surgery on patients across both NHS and private settings.

The Acute Data Alignment Programme (ADAPt) was set up in 2018 as a joint initiative between NHS Digital – now part of NHS England – and the Private Healthcare Information Network (PHIN).

Pilot projects have shown that private providers are able to submit admitted patient care data directly to the NHS and that this has a number of benefits, especially where data on private hospital activity can be linked to information on NHS-funded care. This can provide insights such as the number of emergency readmissions following discharge from a private provider.

The public consultation sets out the details of how private healthcare hospital activity data will be collected and processed by NHS England, which merged with NHS Digital earlier this year.

James Austin, Director of Data Strategy and Policy at NHS England, said: “NHS data already plays an important role in how we provide high quality patient care and monitor safety reporting systems across the NHS.

“This vision of a single repository of healthcare information, combining NHS and private healthcare, will help provide better insights and lead to improved care and treatment for all patients across both the NHS and private healthcare sectors.

“Working jointly on the ADAPt programme has enabled us to see the benefits of how this might work. We’d now like to invite healthcare professionals, patient groups and individuals to share their views by responding to the consultation.”

A range of views are being sought, particularly on the use and benefits of combining NHS and private activity data within NHS centralised reporting systems.

People have until 20 April to respond to the consultation, by either completing an online questionnaire on the NHS England Digital Consultation Hub or emailing their comments to enquiries@nhsdigital.nhs.uk, and stating ADAPt Consultation in the subject line.

Respond to the consultation

Collection of Private Healthcare activity data by NHS England

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Registration Authority emergency guidance – temporary extension

We recently announced that the emergency guidance was to end on 31 March 2023. However due to user feedback and a delay in deploying digital proof of address components in the Apply for Care ID service, we have taken the decision to extend this until 31 May 2023.

This will give Registration Authorities the chance to implement any changes necessary to move from the emergency guidance to the Apply for Care ID service in June. Those Registration Authorities that choose to conduct face to face checks will, of course, be free to continue this for ID verification. 

If you have any queries about this, contact iamplatforms@nhs.net.

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