Register your interest to support a new cohorting data service

To inform the development of a new data service, we are conducting some research on how patient data is used. We’d like to speak to those who work in, or have responsibility for, patient data in the health and care sector in England at a regional or local level.

The service has the potential to securely identify groups (cohorts) of people with shared characteristics from national health data, to help ensure the right people can be targeted and offered the services and/or treatment they need. 

The research is confidential and being conducted by an independent research company. To register your interest to take part please complete this short form.

/by
Event: FHIR and UK CORE Hackathon

HL7 UK in association with INTEROpen and NHS England invites you to attend the FHIR UK Core Hackathon.

The event will help health tech suppliers to understand how to implement FHIR UK Core into their products, plan roadmaps that support the development of more interoperable clinical systems across the UK and provide an opportunity to hack some key clinical use cases using The FHIR UK Core.

This is a free event and it will run alongside Digital Rewired on 14 and 15 March 2023 at the London Business Design Centre. 

Book your place. 

 

Work with us

We are looking for suppliers of clinical systems to be involved with the development of FHIR and UK CORE. Your participation will help to ensure that a standard way of handling interactions between different systems is used, improving interoperability locally and nationally as a result.

Please register your interest by emailing interoperabilityteam@nhs.net.

 

/by
Updated Guidance to CIS1 Deprecation

The original plan was to retire Care Identity Service authentication (aka ‘CIS1’) by September 2023, and for systems to have migrated to Care Identity Authentication (CIA, aka ‘CIS2 Authentication’). 

Whilst progress has been made; it is clear that not all suppliers will complete the migration within this timeframe.   

Therefore, we intend to change approach and: 

  • Migrate internal NHS England (previously NHS Digital) services to CIA by the original date of September 2023 as some suppliers had dependencies on us to migrate first.   
  • Offer suppliers an additional year to migrate to CIA, with a new retirement date of 30 September 2024 
  • Account for any suppliers who have not completed the migration to CIA or have not completed the rollout of their changes to all sites, by continuing to support CIS1, but at a reduced service level.   

 Currently both CIS1 and CIA are supported to a Platinum Plus SLA - supported hours are 24x7x365 with 99.99% availability target (max of 4 mins downtime per month)  

    On 30 September 2024: 

    • We will reduce the support level for the CIS1 authentication service to a Silver SLA.
    • Operational hours will remain 24x7x365, but supported hours will be reduced to 8 am to 6 pm Monday – Friday and 99.5% availability (target max of 3.5 hours of downtime per month).  
    • CIA will continue to be run to Platinum Plus SLA.

    On 30 September 2025: 

    • We will reduce the support level for CIS1 authentication service to a Bronze SLA.
    • Operational hours will remain 24x7x365, but support hours will be to 8 am to 6 pm Monday - Friday and 98% availability (target max of 14.5 hours of downtime per month) 
    • CIA will continue to be run to Platinum Plus SLA. 

    Benefits of migration to CIS2 CIA 

    • CIA is built using common open standards such as OIDC, FIDO2 and WebAuthn which are widely used and understood within the market. This should increase the availability of relevant engineering skills, reducing time-to-market. 
    • CIA supports new features such as modern alternatives to smartcards, and supports access over the internet via devices other than Windows PCs 
    • CIA is more secure and better optimised for high availability and for the addition of new capabilities wherever demand creates a need. 
    /by
    For information: Changes to dm+d and SNOMED CT UK Drug Extension content 

    Changes are being made to the NHS Dictionary of Medicines and Devices (dm+d) and SNOMED CT UK Drug Extension to reduce the potential for clinical errors across NHS clinical IT systems.  

    The changes will bring the content and availability of these terminologies into closer alignment whilst improving safety and efficiency, allowing staff to focus even more on care. 

    Find out more about these changes, including proposed delivery timescales and a video for NHS Trusts. 

    Read the rollout plan for the VMP ID changes.  

    If you have any queries, please contact nhsdigital.ukmeds@nhs.net  

    /by
    For information: Changes to dm+d and SNOMED CT UK Drug Extension  

    Changes are being made to the NHS Dictionary of Medicines and Devices (dm+d) and SNOMED CT UK Drug Extension to reduce the potential for clinical errors across NHS clinical IT systems. The changes to the underlying terminology (dm+d) will impact IT systems differently. Pharmacy teams should liaise with their IT system suppliers to determine how the changes will impact their systems. 

    Information for specific changes is available on the NHS Digital website, including proposed delivery timescales and a video for NHS Trusts. 

    For any queries, please contact nhsdigital.ukmeds@nhs.net. 

    /by
    Additional information for Digital Leaders – February 2023

    Join our Cloud Community of Practice 

    Our Cloud Centre of Excellence team will be launching a new NHS Cloud Community on the FutureNHS platform in March, called the Cloud Community of Practice. 

    It’s aimed at NHS organisations who are interested in all aspects of cloud migration and will be an open forum for people to pose questions and present their challenges around cloud migration to peers.  

    To pre-register your interest in the Cloud Community please contact us at cloudcoe@nhs.net.  

     

    Improvements to the Register with a GP surgery service 

    Recent improvements to the Register with a GP surgery online service include: 

    • revised alcohol and smoking questions to improve patient information at point of registration 
    • an option for patients to nominate their chosen pharmacy 

    We are planning to add more features and integrate the service with the NHS App later this year. See our roadmap for more details. 

    The Register with a GP surgery service is now live with almost 600 practices and has shown to reduce the time it takes administrative staff to register new patients by up to 15 minutes per registration. 

    GP practices can begin using the service by self-enrolling or by contacting the dedicated support team. Further information can also be found on the resource hub. 

     

    Feature: Electronic prescribing comes of age 

    The Electronic Prescription Service has transformed primary care prescribing in England. In her NHS Digital feature, Christine Hague looks back at 18 years of the service and asks what's next. 

     

    Blog: Helping people think straight about alcohol 

    In his Design Matters blog, David Evans, content designer for the Register with a GP surgery service, says it’s difficult to get accurate answers about people’s smoking and alcohol consumption – and explains what the team is doing to improve the way people assess their intake. 

     

    Blog: Shaping the future of technology in general practice 

    Dan Wintercross explains the benefits of getting involved with the early adopter programme, which is giving GP practices the opportunity to shape the future of digital, data and technology in primary care. Read his Digital Transformation blog. 

     

    Podcast: Plans to transform the digital workforce

    Listen to the second podcast in the series from the NHS England digital workforce team. A panel of clinical and digital leaders discuss their understanding of the digital workforce across heath and care, and look at why clinicians are fundamental to the success of digital transformation. 

    /by
    Events to help shape future of IT systems at the heart of the NHS

    NHS England is holding a series of bi-monthly webinars to encourage people to get involved in how technology can meet the current and future needs of patients, staff and citizens - with the next session ‘Spine Futures’ due to take place on Thursday 23 February. 

    The existing NHS Spine joins together more than 28,000 healthcare IT systems and sends over 47 million messages a day. It allows information to be shared securely through national services such as the Electronic Prescription Service, Summary Care Record and the e-Referral Service. 

    Since April 2022, work has been underway to develop a new platform to modernise the current NHS Spine over the next two to three years. A core element of the programme has been to make use of modern technologies to create a cloud-based Spine of the future. 

    Cloud technology makes developing services easier and has the potential to reduce environmental impact. 

    In December last year, the Messaging Exchange for Health and Social Care (MESH) was successfully  replaced with a cloud-based version.  MESH connects over 35,000 health and care organisations, enabling them to share a wide variety of data securely and reliably and at scale, with around 70,000 messages sent a month. 

    The next Spine service set to migrate to cloud is the National Record Locator (NRL). 

    Stephen Koch, Executive Director for Platforms at NHS England, said: “We want the Spine of the future to make the best use of modern technologies and open standards to ensure it meets the needs of NHS users for many years to come.  

    “That's why we're actively engaging the health and care system with the development of the Spine Futures programme. 

    “Last year’s migration of the MESH service to the cloud was a massive achievement for the teams involved and a significant first step in our Spine Futures programme. 

    “We’re asking colleagues working in health and care to tell us what they need from the Spine of the future as we take the next steps of our journey to transform IT in health and social care.” 

    The webinar is aimed at anyone working in health and care who wants to hear about plans for the Spine of the future and share their needs for national services. 

    The session will focus on the latest developments including how NHS England is working with social care software providers, the latest developments from the National Record Locator (NRL), and the details of how the MESH system migrated to the cloud without impacting the service. 
     
    To find out more, anyone working in IT across health or care can register for the Spine Futures webinar on Thursday 23 February, from 3.30pm to 4.30pm.  

    /by
    Problems uploading a photo in Care Identity Service application – expired certificate

    You are trying to upload a photo on a user's Care Identity Profile in the Care Identity Service Application, and see the following error message:

    Applicant Photo Error: Click for details

    It is likely that you are using Internet Explorer, or Edge in IE Compatibility mode. This is an unsupported browser for Care Identity Service.

    The Care Identity Service application should be accessed using Edge or Chrome browsers. You must also have the latest version of Credential Management installed. Credential Management removes the need to have Java running on your machine, when using the NHS Care Identity suite of applications. 

    A list of software that we support on the Warranted Environment Specification.

    To see if you already have Credential Management set up, use our checker tool.

    The latest version of our software, including Credential Management and Identity Agent (needs HSCN connection). 

    If you have any problems with this workaround, or to report another issue, go to the NHS Digital Customer Portal or email: ssd.nationalservicedesk@nhs.net.

    /by
    Electronic prescriptions reach one billion a year

     

    Almost one billion prescription items were dispensed electronically in the last 12 months, with less than 1 in 20 still paper-based.

    The Electronic Prescription Service (EPS) is now the default method for prescribing and dispensing  prescriptions in primary care in England.

    The number of electronic prescriptions sent to community pharmacies has almost doubled in the past five years according to figures highlighted by NHS England to mark the 18th anniversary of the service.

    Prescription items issued electronically topped 996 million (95%) in 2021/22, compared with 532 million in 2016/17 when just under half (48%) were still issued on paper.

    The total number of prescription items dispensed each year has also grown from 1.02 billion in 2016/17 to 1.04 billion in 2021/22, with 11,400 pharmacies now signed up to using the electronic service.

    The system allows clinicians to send prescriptions electronically to a pharmacy of the patient's choice, making the prescribing and dispensing process more efficient and convenient for patients and staff.

    Dr Rabani is a GP at Ling House Medical Centre in Keighley, West Yorkshire, where the first electronic prescription was sent 18 years ago. He said:

    “The Electronic Prescription Service for us in general practice really has been a game-changer. Gone are the days of spending our lunch breaks signing reams of repeat prescriptions by hand.

    “In terms of patient safety, if we change or cancel a prescription we can amend it in the system instead of phoning the pharmacy and making sure the paper slip is destroyed. And it’s been useful for my out-of-hours practice as well. I can look in the system to see the opening hours and addresses of pharmacies to help decide which is the most convenient one for my patient to send their prescription to.”

    Rahul Singal, Chief Pharmacy and Medicines Information Officer at NHS England, said:

    “When you look at the number of transactions that are made via the service and how much it’s revolutionised practice in general practice and community pharmacy, we’d be pushed to think of another national system that’s had more success.

    “Our next focus is to introduce EPS into more care settings, including more health settings such as hospital outpatient departments so the benefits can be realised for even more clinicians and patients across the NHS.”

    Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust is the first secondary care provider in England to implement EPS.

    Dr James Briscoe, Consultant Psychiatrist in their Early Intervention team, said: 

    "It is not too dramatic to state that EPS has revolutionised my practice. I can now write and deliver prescriptions in five minutes compared to the time and effort it took to handwrite a prescription from scratch, arrange for it to be collected by the service user or a member of the team or hand deliver it to a pharmacy. A huge time saving with inbuilt safeguards to enable safe prescribing.” 

    /by
    RA Emergency Guidance to be extended to end of March 2023

    This guidance refers to the use of video calls and scans to verify a persons’ identity.

    The Control of Patient Information (COPI notice), on which this emergency guidance was based, ended on 30 September 2022. The guidance date was extended whilst the ‘Apply for Care ID service’ was deployed.

    Find out more about the Apply for Care ID service.

    If you have a Sponsor, RA Agent or RA Manager role you should be able to access the Apply for Care ID service and start using the service now. 

    From 1 April 2023 the only acceptable means of verifying a user’s identity will be:

    It's only these 3 services that provide a high confidence in the identity created, which is a requirement from the Government, to access national clinical information and data systems.

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

    /by