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The nine projects at the heart of NHS IT
We reveal which projects are on target - and which are running late

By Steve Ranger

Published: Thursday 19 January 2006

The Spine

The Spine is part of the NHS Care Records Service; it is the central database where summary patient records are stored. Local records will automatically upload important information to the summary patient record on the Spine.

Only NHS staff, equipped with smartcards and pin numbers, will be able to access information on the Spine. A messaging system directs requests for patient details to the various parts of the Spine where the information is held, and retrieves the details.

The Spine also supports Choose and Book and the Electronic Transmission of Prescriptions.

What progress so far?

There are 175,320 users registered for access to the Spine, although it is not carrying the levels of traffic it will when applications such as Choose and Book and electronic prescriptions are running at full speed.

Even so there have been early difficulties - downtime with the Spine over the Christmas period had a knock-on effect on the other systems that rely on it, such as Choose and Book.