EmailDr Paul Jones, who works for the National Programme's controller NHS Connecting for Health, said that its applications could be connected and integrated with mobile systems. However, some were not themselves able to run on the mobile devices increasingly used within healthcare.
"I think some of the solutions that have been developed, like Cerner's heavyweight application, have not been developed for a mobile environment," Jones told Kable's Mobile and Wireless Healthcare conference in Manchester on 24 February 2009. "I think that is a challenge."
Despite such problems, Jones said: "Mobile computing really has the potential to make patient care better, professionals' jobs easier and to save money, so everyone's a winner."
He said a trial of mobile devices in the East Midlands, under which community nurses could update patient records remotely, saved each nurse 38 minutes a day. Across the health service, this was the equivalent of 4,000 more nurses. Each nurse travelled 40,000 miles less each year, and they updated 95% of patient records in 48 hours, compared to six weeks before the technology was introduced.
However, Jones said that CfH did not plan to dictate how the NHS should introduce mobile technology. "I've been asked a number of times, what is the mobile strategy? It's not for me to know," he said, although he asked organisations to tell CfH what works and what does not. NHS organisations "need to learn from each other," he said, adding: "We can act as a facilitator, a store of what is going on."
In response to a question on the lack of mobile roaming agreements within the UK, Jones said CfH had considered buying telephones in France – although he said this had not been a serious plan. Overseas users are able to shift between network, but British users are tied to one under telecoms regulations. This causes particular problems for professional users in areas of poor coverage.
He added that the NHS has been talking to the regulator about changing the rules, but added: "It's like pushing treacle uphill."
;