I gave a seminar on electronic primary care records last week on the Imperial College MPH programme, as part of the module on health information. The seminar covered the uses of data from primary care records to support public health, epidemiological, health services and clinical research. As more general practitioners use electronic primary care records, the scope for secondary uses of the data derived from them will increase. Further information is available from two of my publications on primary care data, published by the Eastern Region Public Health Observatory and in Health Statistics Quarterly.
NHS budgets are under considerable pressure. It is therefore unsurprising that many NHS Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) In England will aim to prioritise price in contract awards, But this approach is a significant threat to community-centred healthcare. While competitive tendering is a legally required, an excessive focus on costs in awarding NHS contracts risks overshadowing key factors such as established community trust, local expertise, and the long-term impact on continuity of care. This shift towards cheaper, often external, commercial providers threatens to cut the links between communities and their local health services. The argument that competitive tendering is solely about legal compliance, and not cost, is undermined by the very nature of such tendering, which by design encourages the lowest bid. This approach risks eroding the social fabric of local healthcare provision, where established relationships and understanding of specific community needs are essential. Establishe...
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