Is SCI Gateway really essential?

NHS Scotland developed SCI Gateway in the early 2000s to allow secure communication of clinical data and enable GPs to make protocol-based referrals from Primary to Secondary Care. Over the years it has been used for many thousands of GP referrals, and also a much wider range of purposes including the requesting of advice from specialists, death certifications, infection notifications, and tertiary referrals. It has been adopted by the NHS in Wales and Northern Ireland. However the NHS now has to make a decision about the future of SCI Gateway in Scotland and consider whether to invest in its future, or whether it may be time to consider a new alternative product. We have discussions with Lesly Donovan, the General eHealth manager in NHS Fife, and John Wells, eHealth Project manager in NHS Forth Valley who consider some of our questions about how vital Gateway currently it is for the daily working of the NHS and is it really essential to keep it for the future?

We would be interested in what other GP IT users think...