The paperless general practice

摘要

The contract between health commissioning authorities and general practitioners states that "a doctor shall keep adequate records of the illness and treatment of his patients on forms supplied to him for the purpose." "Form" is clearly a paper form, yet in 1993 a large national survey found that 8% of general practices were already paperless.1 The regulations will probably soon be changed to remove the limitation on paperless records. Are general practitioners and their clinical information systems ready for this legitimisation?