The first quarter of 2007-08 witnessed several milestones for the National Programme for IT (NPfIT), says a report from the NHS.

The NHS has singled out picture archiving and communications systems (PACS), choose and book, and the electronic prescription service as areas where significant progress has been made.

The report, published on 30 August 2007, says that between April and June this year 100 per cent of PACS installations were completed in the south and London – with a total of 81,733,354 images stored during this period.

Over the same period, eight acute patient administration systems were deployed in hospitals across the country, while more than 1m appointments were made using Choose and Book. The quarter also saw 9,145,435 - 11 per cent of all daily prescriptions - transmitted using the electronic prescription service.

The report claims that the NPfIT local ownership programme (NLOP) has already given strategic health authorities significantly greater influence and control over the roll out and implementation of the NPfIT in their areas.

Under the NLOP, Connecting for Health retains responsibility for the commercial and contractual aspects of the NPfIT, while local organisations have taken over responsibility for implementing the objectives.

This article was originally published at Kablenet.

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