Written question asked by Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton (Conservative) on Monday, 16 April 2007, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 19 April 2007. It was answered by Caroline Flint (Labour) on Tuesday, 24 April 2007 on behalf of the Department of Health.

Hospitals: ICT

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many Care Records Service computer systems have been installed in hospitals.

Answer: [holding answer 19 April 2007]: There are currently 311 hospital-based computer systems deployed through the national programme for information technology that are connected to and use the spine. The spine is the colloquial name given to the national database of key information about patients’ health and care. It forms the core of the national health service care records service (NHS CRS). It also supports other key elements of the national programme for information technology, such as choose and book, the electronic prescriptions service, and general practitioner (GP) to GP record transfer, each of them using the spine’s messaging capabilities as part of their own services.A further 158 systems already deployed through the programme will in due course be enabled to link to the spine following further future releases of the relevant software.

Secondary information