South West London integrated care board has shared how a digital system is being used at a practice in Kingston to triage patients. Holmwood Corner Surgery in Kingston launched an online triage service in May 2022, with an aim to support patients choose the best option that suits them when […]
Primary Care News
Prescription management, long-term conditions, and new patient registrations in focus for improving care navigation in general practice
NHS England’s Primary Care Transformation team has published a guide focusing on prescription management, long-term conditions and new patient registrations as part of support to improve care related processes in general practice. For improving prescription management, the guidance places focus on increasing uptake of the NHS App or other patient […]
Agilio acquires primary care specialist iatro
Agilio Software has announced its latest acquisition of iatro, a specialist digital primary care supplier. The company said the acquisition will enhance its patient engagement software offering, levering the “significant amount of information that is held on Agilio’s TeamNet required for patient communications and being published on GP websites”. The company […]
Primary care virtual consultations increase to 597,670 in August
NHS England has released its publication of appointments in general practice for August 2023, noting a 447,673 increase in the number of video/online appointments in August 2023, from August 2022. Representing 2.11 percent of the total of 28,194,025 appointments in general practice in August 2023, 597,670 video/online appointments were recorded […]
Markets authority clears £1.2 billion EMIS purchase
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has cleared UnitedHealth’s £1.2bn purchase of EMIS. In August, the CMA provisionally cleared and found no competition concerns for the proposed deal, leading to a final confirmation announcement on 29 September 2023 that “the transaction does not raise competition concerns” and has “cleared the deal […]
General Practice Improvement Programme focuses on improving telephone journeys
NHS England, as part of its General Practice Improvement Programme, has shared a support offer to focus on improving telephone journeys in general practice. Aiming to support practices and PCNs in choosing, purchasing and optimising the use of advanced cloud-based telephony, the guidance covers the functionality offered; the use of call […]
Thought leadership: insights from HTN speakers on digital primary care
This week at HTN, we’ve been publishing a series of thought leadership features with insight from a range of health tech professionals; so far we have covered AI and data; patient flow and how to support hospital efficiencies; shared care records and the benefits of improving patient records. Now, we’re turning […]
Primary care recovery plan update: more than 1,000 practices sign up for digital telephony
More than 1,000 general practices have signed up to upgrade their phone systems from analogue to digital as part of the government’s plans to modernise NHS primary care services, according to an update from the Department of Health and Social Care on progress made around the primary care recovery plan […]
Wales to begin testing electronic prescription service in primary care
Live testing of a new electronic prescription service (EPS) is about to begin in Wales, which will see prescriptions sent electronically from a GP practice to a patient’s pharmacy of choice, negating the need for paper forms. The transition from paper-based processes to a digital service is being described as […]
AI model to support dentists in detecting tooth decay and gum disease
A platform which allows an AI model to recognise abnormalities in anatomical structures has been developed by King’s College London and the University of Surrey in collaboration with Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust and Oral Health Foundation, with the project aiming to “provide a one-stop solution to both collect and […]
