Choose and Book Service

Mr. Stephen O'Brien
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment she has made of the (a) robustness, (b) ease of use and (c) reliability of the choose and book system.

Andy Burnham
To ensure robustness, the performance of the choose and book system was tested before implementation and is re-tested as changes are made. The test results have all been within agreed service levels.

The service was designed to be as user friendly as possible. Ease of use is regularly assessed in partnership with regional user groups as well as national groups such as the national clinical reference panel and the design steering group. Potential improvements are identified by these groups with changes delivered in subsequent releases of the software. Local benchmarking suggests that choose and book has excellent usability when the local configuration is correct.

Over the last 12 months, choose and book has been available to general practitioners more than 99 per cent. of the time and agreed service levels are being met.

Anne Milton
To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what assessment she has made of the effects of the implementation of choose and book;

(2) what assessment she has made of the impact of choose and book on general practitioners surgeries; and if she will make a statement.

Mr. Ivan Lewis
As at 3 July 2006, 568,611 patients had been referred through choose and book, with the referral information available electronically to commissioners and providers. The Department receives regular feedback on the effects of the system through a range of channels, which suggests that patients who receive the service welcome it. As with the implementation of any such system, change is required of those who administer it but we do not expect the choose and book service to increase the overall workload for general practitioner practices.

Mr. Stephen O'Brien
To ask the Secretary of State for Health by what date the choose and book system was expected to have achieved 100 per cent. roll-out when it was first announced; what targets have been issued since then; whether those targets have been met; and what percentage roll-out had been achieved on the last date for which figures are available.

Mr. Ivan Lewis
The aim of the national health service improvement plan in 2004 was for 100 per cent., e-booking by the end of December 2005. This became unachievable due to subsequent developments in the technical requirements of the service and the greater implementation challenge that these represented. We now expect to reach a choose and book utilisation level of 90 per cent., of general practitioner referrals by the end of March 2007. As at 2 July 2006, utilisation stood at 20.4 per cent.

All eligible acute providers in England are now live and are accepting bookings through choose and book. Bookings are made through either an integrated patient admission system or indirectly bookable services functionality.

Mr. Stephen O'Brien
To ask the Secretary of State for Health which general practitioner practices (a) have started then ceased to use the choose and book computer system to make appointments and (b) have decreased their use of the choose and book system in each week measured over the last six months; and if she will make a statement.

Mr. Ivan Lewis
As at 25 June, 2,201 general practitioner (GP) practices had started to use the choose and book service in 2006. We have defined started to use as the GP practice making a minimum of twenty bookings. Of these practices, eight had not used the choose and book service to make a booking in the last thirty days. The central support team are working in areas of low utilisation to help improve the take up of choose and book.