Written question asked by Justine Greening (Conservative) on Monday, 21 April 2008, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 23 April 2008. It was answered by Ben Bradshaw (Labour) on Thursday, 1 May 2008 on behalf of the Department of Health.

Medical Records: Databases

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how often data records registered on the National Health Application Infrastructure Service (Exeter) are updated.

Answer: Data records held by the National Health Application Infrastructure Service (NHAIS) are updated electronically on each occasion whenever a business event occurs that requires data to be updated. Nationally, approximately 60,000 patient demographic changes including new registrations, amendments and deductions are made on the NHAIS patient database each working day. Examples include when a patient advises his or her general practitioner practice of a change of home address or change of name following marriage or divorce; or when the NHS Central Register advises NHAIS of the death of a patient following the death being formally recorded by a registrar of births, marriages and deaths.

Secondary information