London Programme for IT

Move to new child health system underway

PCTs in North London have begun the move from an interim child health computer system to a permanent one which is connected to the Spine - the secure database of key information about a patient's health and care, which forms the core of the NHS Care Records Service.

Camden, Islington and Waltham Forest PCTs are the first of 10 PCTs using the Child Health Interim Application (CHIA) to migrate to RiO, joining 15 PCTs already using RiO successfully for child health.

It is now possible for these trusts to track children from birth more easily in one electronic record as babies are registered and quickly assigned an NHS number by the midwife's use of the National Central Issuing Service (CIS). This means that blood tests and immunisations can easily be recorded in one place right from the birth of a child.

Within 12 months of implementing RiO and using it for child health, one PCT's immunisation rate went up from 24 per cent to 83 per cent due to more reliable reporting of actual immunisations taking place.

CHIA, which has experienced some problems, was introduced at the request of PCTs when the previous system was withdrawn from the market by its supplier at short notice. The move from CHIA to RiO is planned for completion in autumn.