Description (short summary):
The focus of the Department of Health's Information Strategy is on:

• empowering patients to take more control of their own health through better access to information, including access to their own health records (starting with GP records); 
• using technology to provide more convenient ways for people to access services - such as booking appointments with their GP online, ordering repeat prescriptions online etc; 
• promoting transparency so that a wide range of quality information is available to enable people to make fully informed choices about the healthcare they receive; 
• moving away from a 'provide all' national IT programme to a 'connect all' approach based on consistent national standards for information collection and systems to ensure they are interoperable; 
• promoting the importance of informatics skills and capability for all staff groups in the service.

Number of pages: 119