Do Once and Share

The National Programme for IT, which is being delivered by the new Department of Health agency NHS Connecting for Health, is bringing modern computer systems into the NHS to improve patient care and services. Over the next ten years, the National Programme for IT will connect over 30,000 GPs in England to almost 300 hospitals and give patients access to their personal health and care information, transforming the way the NHS works.

Do Once and Share is about preventing waste and promoting health.

The Do Once and Share project is part of the overall National Programme for IT which will hopefully minimise unnecessary duplication of effort i.e. Do Once and Share which is where it gets its name from.

The goal is for each Strategic Health Authority to work on one specific condition or topic, to establish tested pathways based on experience and evidence, which can then be made available nationally.
The Leicestershire Team under the auspices of the East Midlands Renal Network have been completing this work from a renal perspective. The final report will be submitted to NHS Connecting for Health Team at the end of December 2005

The Aims of Do Once and Share include the following:

• Identify the potential for using the National Programme for IT to improve the efficiency of care processes for both provider and patient
   
• Reduce unknowing duplication so that tests are not repeated
   
• Create national consistency so that care cannot just be location dependent
   
• Reduce the waste of professional and patient time through a reduction in duplication

The Progress to Date

The Leicester Team have been working on the National Programme for IT Do Once and Share under using a "renal patient pathway" as the basis for their work. The pathway started from patient without renal disease through to end stage renal failure. The methodology used was based on a "Confirm and Challenge" style and helped create dialogue across various professionals from both primary and specialist care, specialist nephrologists, other specialists, the patients, the public and other multi disciplinary teams. This enabled a "Confirm and Challenge" dialogue within this pathway, so as to enable a comprehensive pathway to be established. In line with this, the team have also examined the functionality of the current IT systems within renal units and primary care, and will include this functionality as part of the overall report.

The links below identify the renal patient pathway and the local chronic kidney disease (CKD) guidelines, which have been produced. If anybody would like further information on this project or indeed would like to contribute / comment on any part of this pathway please feel free to do so by contacting Bernie Stribling who is the Programme Manager for the Do Once and Share Project on 07971 426592. Alternatively e-mail bernie.stribling@HBPCT.nhs.uk

Renal Guidelines