PATIENT care in York and Selby is to be improved, with a range of new measures that are being introduced within local health services.

Selby and York Primary Care Trust (PCT) and York Health Services NHS Trust have been working together to develop a joint information strategy entitled Making Connections For All, which will enable better, more effective, communication and sharing of information between everyone involved in patient care.

More than 200 health care workers attended an all-day conference at the York Moat House yesterday to hear how the strategy will change the way they provide health care over the next five years.

The staff saw a range of developing integrated information systems, which will create a network between the hospitals, GPs, health centres, clinics, and other places where health care is provided in Selby and York.

One of the first priorities is to develop electronic communications to support patient care - greater use of email and a whole health community intranet, along with the creation of electronic discharge letters, pathology and radiology messaging and electronic referrals. Eventually all clinical staff will have access to a computer and the training they need to use it effectively.

Staff also saw what phones will be able to do in years ahead, how hand-held PCs could help improve the quality of patient care and new ways in which staff who are out and about in the community can talk to their colleagues.

Sue Rushbrook, head of system and network services for York Health Services NHS Trust, said: "We want to share our excitement about what we could be capable of achieving with information technology in the future.

"We want to get everyone involved in reshaping the way we deliver patient care in years to come."

Together, the two trusts provide and commission health care services for a population of about 300,000, and have more than 6,000 staff working from more than 100 different locations across the area.

Updated: 10:29 Saturday, April 27, 2002