NHS England has approved a new IT system for general practice, created by Medicus Health.
The new core clinical GP IT system is already live in ‘four early-adopting sites’, serving over 42,000 patients in total, and will now available to practices across the country, NHS England said today.
The cloud-based technology will ‘support the integration of primary care with other settings’, including care homes and vaccination centres, and can be used on different devices such as tablets.
NHS England described the move as the ‘first shake-up of the GP IT market in a quarter of a century’. However, the RCGP warned that further assurances are needed around data security, and that a concern for practices will be the ‘considerable workload and disruption’ associated with changing systems.
This is the first new supplier to be ‘fully assured’ through NHS England’s Tech Innovation Framework, which ensures new products are ‘fully compliant’ on information governance, clinical safety and data protection, while integrating with NHS infrastructure such as the Electronic Prescription Service, NHS e-Referral Service and NHS App.
Medicus Health integrates with 24 national NHS services and more than 25 ICBs are exploring how they can support adoption of the new system.
It is expected more core GP IT systems that meet the standards of the Tech Innovation Framework will become available by April 2026, ‘offering a wider choice for practices’, NHS England added.
NHS England national director of primary care Dr Amanda Doyle said: ‘This new generation of systems is the first shake-up of the GP IT market we have seen in a quarter of a century, and this shift will help unlock more modern, joined-up care for patients, and help our staff to work better and smarter.
‘It also shows our ongoing commitment to ensuring that the NHS has access to the highest quality digital tools to transform the experience of patients and staff.’
RCGP chair Professor Kamila Hawthorne said that GPs will ‘certainly want assurances’ that the cloud-based storage ‘does not come with risks around data security’.
She said: ‘The current state of IT in general practice, which is often outdated and slow, is a real bug bear for our members.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.’
A version of this story was first published on our sister title Pulse.
