Primary Care News

NHS England seeks national approach to digitising Lloyd George records

NHS England is seeking to develop a national approach to the digitisation of Lloyd George records in GP practices.

As part of the GP contract there is a commitment to digitise these records to support a full patient record, free-up space in GP practices and to save staff time.

The notice has been published here in the Official Journal of the European Union. The procurement is planned to launch in April 2020.

NHS England are seeking views from potential suppliers to inform the national approach and specification. It is proposed to establish a dynamic purchasing system framework which will allow CCGs/STPs to procure services.

NHS England said about the procurement “Some practices have already digitised their records and nationally supported pilots have informed the development of an approach, specification and set of standards and process map.”

“These documents, which are available via the InTend eProcurement system, are still in draft form and being tested nationally prior to being published.”

Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Matt Hancock said in a speech last month “two thirds of all the patient data is held in disorganised form, as freeform electronic documents or scanned letters or pdfs. Or worse still as historic paper documents held off-site in a giant warehouse. Or, for GP practices, in the back room of the surgery.”

“They’re called Lloyd George files. The name says it all. I admire David Lloyd George, but he was in office a century ago. Every time people hear Lloyd George, I want them to think of an admirable leader of the past, not a way to store data in the present.”