INFORMATION AS A RESOURCE IN THE NATIONAL-HEALTH-SERVICE

This paper focuses on the concept of information as a resource in busi ness and industry, with particular reference to healthcare. The impact of the information technology revolution, combined with the recent fu ndamental Government review and reorganization of the National Health service (NHS) has meant a change in attitude by managers towards the u se of information, both in terms of its impact on the service generall y, and on their own abilities to manage effectively. The major issues and constraints affecting the use of information in the NHS were consi dered in a previous study by the authors. In the NHS the term 'informa tion' traditionally refers to numeric, usually internally produced thr oughout data, and statistics. In this paper information is used in its wider sense, unless specified otherwise, to cover numeric and textual information.