BT is working with the NHS in London and the south of England to modernise its IT systems and services and today there are over 100,000 healthcare professionals registered to use systems managed by BT. In London, it has installed more than 200 IT systems and services to 64 of London’s NHS trusts, across all care settings.
Picture Archiving and Communications Systems (PACS), which enable images such as X-rays and scans to be stored electronically and viewed on screens, are also now in use in every acute hospital in London, every day. BT was the first LSP to complete its rollout of PACS, making London the only capital city in the G8 to have all its medical images digitised. Now, images are also being made available for sharing between acute hospitals.
BT has also made considerable progress installing new IT systems to mental and community health Trusts, where it has completed more than 85 per cent of its rollout. It is currently upgrading these trusts to the latest version of the software which connects to the national database and messaging service, known as the Spine, which BT is also running on behalf of the NHS. Among other things, this ensures details such as a patient’s name and address are kept fully up-to-date.
BT also works with acute trusts in the capital to help provide IT systems that will meet their local needs and future requirements. To date BT has installed systems at six acute trusts in London – including two of the largest teaching hospitals in the country.
BT has now taken over responsibility for running IT systems at seven acute trusts across the South of England. In addition, BT is working with other acute and community and mental health trusts in the South which have yet to roll out systems under the NHS National Programme for IT.
Map of Medicine
In both London and the South of England BT is responsible for the Map of Medicine, an online application used by NHS organisations. The Map provides a visual representation of evidence-based, practice-informed care pathways for common and important conditions. Providing web-based access to over 300 easy to use pathways, local communities can customise the pathways to reflect local care provisions and clinical practice.