Written question asked by Rhodri Morgan (Labour), in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Friday, 10 May 1996. It was answered by Lord Horam (Conservative) on Friday, 10 May 1996 on behalf of the Department of Health.

Dept of Health

Question: Pursuant to 276 c607W, if he will list those elements of the Read codes 3 system which will reach service strength in (a) 1996, (b) 1997, (c) 1998, (d) 1999 and (e) 2000.

Answer: Mr. Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to his answer of 2 May, Official Report, column 607, if he will list those elements of the Read codes 3 system which will reach service strength in (a) 1996, (b) 1997, (c) 1998, (d) 1999 and (e) 2000.[28937] Mr. Horam: The timescale for key elements of Read codes version 3 to reach service level strength is as follows: 1996 A product to support the business requirements of hospitals including disorders, procedures, signs and symptoms which describes the work of hospital doctors and is to be used by doctors and coders within hospitals to enable the production of discharge summaries, statutory data sets and reports. 1997 A product including additional terms and qualifiers to support the needs of general practioners and doctors in acute trusts for more detailed electronic clinical records. Work will take place in 1997 to pilot exchange of clinical messages between and within the various healthcare sectors. 1998 onwards The nature of the further refinement and development of version 3 will depend on the feedback from users.

Secondary information