scholarly journals Medical Records: Copying letters to patients

2004 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 57-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geoffrey Lloyd

Access to medical information is going to be extended by recent Government proposals that patients who agree are sent copies of correspondence relevant to their illness and medical treatment. The National Health Service (NHS) Plan for England (Department of Health, 2000) has stated unequivocally that letters between clinicians about an individual patient's care will be copied to the patient as of right. No exceptions have been made and the plan did not suggest that patients suffering from a psychiatric illness are to be treated differently from any other group of patients. However, the Department of Health has recently stated its intention to fund a series of pilot projects to test some key concepts before the policy is fully implemented in 2004. A number of areas to be informed by pilot work have been identified. These include the style and content of letters, testing formats and language that patients find acceptable and particular issues concerning mental health, children and carers (www.doh.gov.uk/patientletters).

2005 ◽  
Vol 29 (10) ◽  
pp. 365-368 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kingsley Norton ◽  
Julian Lousada ◽  
Kevin Healy

Following the publication by the National Institute for Mental Health in England (NIMHE) of Personality Disorder: No Longer A Diagnosis of Exclusion (National Institute for Mental Health in England, 2003), it is perhaps surprising that so soon after there have been threats to the survival of some of the small number of existing specialist personality disorder services to which it refers. Indeed, one of the few in-patient units specialising in such disorders (Webb House in Crewe) closed in July 2004. Such closures or threats argue for closer collaboration in planning between the relevant secondary and tertiary services and also between the Department of Health, the NIMHE and local National Health Service commissioners. Not safeguarding existing tertiary specialist services, at a time of increasing awareness of the needs of patients with personality disorders, may be short-sighted.


1972 ◽  
Vol 120 (557) ◽  
pp. 433-436 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. G. Morgan ◽  
R. M. Compton

Department of Health and Social Security statistics show a steady rise in the use of outpatient services from the inception of the National Health Service; since the Mental Health Act of 1959, the numbers of new outpatient and clinic attendances have increased by one-third and one-fifth respectively (D.H.S.S., 1971). However, as our knowledge of the actual functions of out-patient services and their relationship to in-patient care is at best only rudimentary, the recent article by Mezey and Evans (Journal, June 1971, 118, p. 609) is a much needed contribution towards evaluating these different facilities of the psychiatric services.


2007 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 97-98
Author(s):  
Alison Mann ◽  
Philip Sugarman ◽  
Carol Rooney ◽  
Mary Goodman ◽  
Jim Lynch

Assaults against healthcare staff have gained increasing attention, prompting the Zero Tolerance Zone campaign in the National Health Service (NHS) (Department of Health, 1999). This advised that treatment could be withheld as a sanction, although not from ‘anyone who is mentally ill or under the influence of drugs'. More recently the NHS Security Management Service (Department of Health, 2005) found that the greatest number of assaults (over 43 000) were found in mental health and learning disability environments.


2003 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 200-201
Author(s):  
Tony Maden

Psychiatrists have always been concerned about the mental health of prisoners. If they did not devote much energy to their treatment, it was only because they had more-pressing problems, including how to squeeze ten patients into nine beds. In any case, it was someone else's job to look after prisoners. Luke Birmingham's article (Birmingham, 2003, this issue) could not be more timely, as this situation has now changed. With the publication of The Future Organisation of Prison Healthcare (Prison Service & NHS Executive Working Group, 1999), and the creation of a joint Department of Health and Home Office task force, the Government has made it clear that the problem of mentally disordered offenders belongs to the National Health Service (NHS). There is a plan, there is a partnership and there are targets. Can those of us who have been worrying about prisoners with mental illness sit back and relax, as the solution unfolds?


1999 ◽  
Vol 23 (12) ◽  
pp. 711-714 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Kennedy

This is one of three articles describing how one National Health Service (NHS) trust is tackling clinical governance. The first is by the trust chief executive, the ‘accountable officer’ in the White Paper The New NHS (Department of Health, 1997). The second is by the trust's director of research and development whose responsibilities include assisting clinical directorates to carry out an annual programme of improvements in clinical effectiveness. The third paper is by the mental health lead clinician’ for clinical governance.


2011 ◽  
Vol 17 (6) ◽  
pp. 470-475 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sabyasachi Bhaumik ◽  
John Devapriam ◽  
Satheesh Gangadharan ◽  
Avinash Hiremath ◽  
Ashok Roy

SummaryPayment by results (PbR) for mental health services is currently being piloted with the aim of arriving at a national tariff for mental health by 2013/2014. The Department of Health has also established two pilot sites to consider applicability of PbR for learning disability services. This article outlines the concept of PbR in learning disability services and describes the progress of the pilot work being undertaken in this area.


1970 ◽  
Vol 09 (03) ◽  
pp. 149-160 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Van Brunt ◽  
L. S. Davis ◽  
J. F. Terdiman ◽  
S. Singer ◽  
E. Besag ◽  
...  

A pilot medical information system is being implemented and currently is providing services for limited categories of patient data. In one year, physicians’ diagnoses for 500,000 office visits, 300,000 drug prescriptions for outpatients, one million clinical laboratory tests, and 60,000 multiphasic screening examinations are being stored in and retrieved from integrated, direct access, patient computer medical records.This medical information system is a part of a long-term research and development program. Its major objective is the development of a multifacility computer-based system which will support eventually the medical data requirements of a population of one million persons and one thousand physicians. The strategy employed provides for modular development. The central system, the computer-stored medical records which are therein maintained, and a satellite pilot medical data system in one medical facility are described.


1967 ◽  
Vol 06 (01) ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
P. Hall ◽  
Ch. Mellner ◽  
T. Danielsson

A system for medical information has been developed. The system is a general and flexible one which without reprogramming or new programs can accept any alphabetic and/or numeric information. Coded concepts and natural language can be read, stored, decoded and written out. Medical records or parts of records (diagnosis, operations, therapy, laboratory tests, symptoms etc.) can be retrieved and selected. The system can process simple statistics but even make linear pattern recognition analysis.The system described has been used for in-patients, outpatients and individuals in health examinations.The use of computers in hospitals, health examinations or health care systems is a problem of storing information in a general and flexible form. This problem has been solved, and now it is possible to add new routines like booking and follow-up-systems.


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