Law21 May 2012
The focus 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 transprency 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.