Integrating anaesthesia and intensive care into the National Care Record

The National Care Record for England is planned to be deliveredas part of the National Programme for Information Technology(NPfIT) by the National Health Service Connecting for Health.It will be made up from a National Summary Care Record, LocalDetailed Care Records and from images in Picture Archiving andCommunication Systems. Full benefits for clinical care willonly come when there is true integration of the clinical recordssystems which enables rapid clinical decision support, a consistentuser interface, single entry of data items and analysis of informationacross the full spectrum of clinical care. Currently there arefew hospitals with fully electronic anaesthetic or criticalcare systems, and these are only partly linked to the hospitalsystems. This limits their benefit to patient care and healthcare staff. As NPfIT is being mandated for all hospitals inEngland it is essential to consider now how the next generationof anaesthetic and intensive care systems will integrate withit.