‘Any move towards providing better, more modern IT systems in general practice is good news’, College Chair

RCGP responds to the NHS approving a new IT system for GPs, Professor Kamila Hawthorne, Chair of the Royal College of GPs, said: “The current state of IT in general practice, which is often outdated and slow, is a real bug bear for our members. It is both frustrating at a time GP teams are working under intense pressure and hampers the care we’re able to deliver for our patients. Any move towards providing better, more modern IT systems in general practice is good news.

“Current systems available for GP practices have been criticised for their slowness and responsiveness to issues, and the lack of choice in provider has exacerbated this – so, the introduction of a system that offers greater interoperability is positive and something the College has called for.

“The safety of our patients’ data is a top priority for GPs, so our members will certainly want assurances that the cloud-based storage does not come with risks around data security – something we expect to already have been considered by NHS England.

“A further concern for practices will be the considerable workload and disruption associated with changing systems. This is a really big task for even the most tech-savvy of practices, as they will need to ensure no patient information is lost or displaced in the changeover. It’s vital that appropriate support is made available for practices that decide to make a change.

“We will continue to assess progress in this area with the College’s Health Informatics Group.”

Further information

RCGP press office: 0203 188 7659
press@rcgp.org.uk

Notes to editors

The Royal College of General Practitioners is a network of more than 54,000 family doctors working to improve care for patients. We work to encourage and maintain the highest standards of general medical practice and act as the voice of GPs on education, training, research and clinical standards.