Commenting on the Health Secretary's challenge to NHS to go paperless, Prof John Williams, Royal College of Physicians’ Director of Health Informatics Unit (HIU) said:
We fully agree with the Health Secretary's point that ‘technology can never replace the fantastic work done by doctors and nurses but it can help enormously.’ Health records are the cornerstone of good care. Doctors, patients, relatives and carers need good record keeping in order to improve clinical information and decision making, and to reduce the likelihood of patients having to provide the same information over and over again.
Whether the NHS is paper-heavy or paper-light we need to standardise the way clinical records are structured. The HIU has led the development of standards for patient records. By embedding these in electronic records we believe that the technology will support the efficient delivery of the highest standards of care.
Standards for the development of electronic patient records can reduce harm to patients, provide a better patient experience and equity of access to integrated information for the patient.