Background
All Health Boards need a coordinated approach to inform users of new IT upgrades and developments. They also need a conduit for communications to and from Practices and an efficient linkage with the Facilitators’ Programme in their area. They need a pool of experienced clinicians to draw on for more detailed consultation from time to time.
GP Practices need an easy and accessible mechanism for communicating with the Scottish Government eHealth Department. They also need a single point of entry for communications with the Clinical Change Leadership Group (CCLG).
NSS may require access to different kinds of expertise at different times, for example for SEF requirements, QOF queries and coding, SNOMED, clinical safety testing, patient record sharing/transfer etc.
GP Practices need an independent body that can give advice, feed back best practice and generally speak on behalf of them collectively at a national level, for example, standards for data entry, clinical priorities setting etc.
Remit
To combine the resources and experience of members of the EMIS, Gpass and Vision clinical communities, SCIMP into a single independent voice for GP IT information and communication for Scotland.
This group would discuss, review, inform and lobby on common local and national issues which may affect General Practice users of these systems with respect to systems’ functionality, user acceptance, clinical safety, support, implementation, training, governance and future development. The group would endeavour to ensure that Scottish GP systems continue to meet the business requirements of General Practice and support the safe care of patients.
Governance
General Practice IT developments will be overseen by the Primary Care Portfolio Management Group (PCPMG). The Chair of SNUG will sit on the PCPMG along with a member of SGPC, the SG lead for Primary care and the SG lead for Primary Care e-health. The PCPMG receives papers for the eHealth Programme Board and the Chair of SNUG will be responsible for circulating items of interest and feeding back views from SNUG Management Group. PCPMG will commission pieces of work, projects, testing etc and these will be coordinated by SCIMP, GMS Facilitators or NSS as appropriate. Members of SNUG will provide expertise and advice to these commissions and SNUG will hold a register of GPs, Nurses and Managers with special interest for this purpose.
A GPIT Contract Management Group will continue to meet post migration to oversee the new SEF process and will include several members of SNUG. The combination of GPITs, SNUG, SCIMP and NSS will be collectively known as the Engine Room as they will provide individuals to take part in project teams and provide interest and expertise on behalf of users.