2007

Choose and Book goes live at Nuffield Hospitals

The Plymouth Nuffield Hospital is the first independent sector hospital to offer electronic appointments on the Choose and Book system. It will soon be joined by another 38 Nuffield hospitals and before long patients will be able to choose from 160 independent hospitals.

Nuffield Hospitals worked with Connecting for Health and iSOFT to establish links from its iSOFT i.PM patient administration system to achieve connectivity. Chris Cook, Nuffield Hospitals’ IT director, said: “Gaining approval to integrate with the NHS Choose and Book system has been very difficult, but we are delighted that our work with Connecting for Health and iSOFT has enabled us to be the first independent sector hospital to be live on Choose and Book.”

Tom Denwood, programme head, Choose and Book, NHS Connecting for Health, said: “Nuffield Hospitals has trail-blazed the implementation of Choose and Book in the independent sector.

“NHS Connecting for Health has been impressed with the way in which the organisation has tackled challenges positively and always with the interest of patients at the heart of their work.”

Paul Richards, iSOFT UK managing director, said: “We recognise that bringing Nuffield Hospitals onto Choose and Book is a significant step forward in the development of a joined-up healthcare service in the UK. Delivering to the independent healthcare sector as well as the NHS is very important to iSOFT.”

Nuffield Hospitals is committed to working with the NHS and recently won the Public/Private Partnership Award at the Laing & Buisson Independent Healthcare Awards for its work in implementing Choose and Book across all of its 40 hospitals.

Established in 1957, Nuffield Hospitals has been providing high quality healthcare services for nearly 50 years and is the largest not-for-profit independent healthcare provider in the UK with 40 hospitals in England and Scotland.