Written question asked by Geoffrey Clifton-Brown (Conservative) on Wednesday, 17 June 2009, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Friday, 19 June 2009. It was answered by Mike O'Brien (Labour) on Thursday, 25 June 2009 on behalf of the Department of Health.

Hospitals: Information and Communications Technology

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to his answer of 21 May 2009, Official Report, column 1595W, on hospitals: ICT, if he will direct the NHS to develop a national IT protocol for an interface between the x-ray services provided by Centricity and Medway.

Answer: This is a matter for the local national health service bodies operating the systems concerned. However, the NHS national programme for IT utilises industry standard messaging protocols when developing interfaces between systems, and has procured picture archiving and communications (digital imaging) systems that conform to the Dicom international standard. Use of standards, as opposed to developing bespoke protocols, ensures local flexibility within the NHS.

Secondary information

Type: Written question
Reference: 494 c1117W; 281680
Session: 2008-09
Related items: Hospitals: ICT
Thursday, 21 May 2009
Written questions
House of Commons
Subjects: ICT Hospitals NHS
Link: View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk