THOUSANDS of patient paper notes and files could soon be a thing of the past at one hospital.

Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre (NOC) bosses believe the move to become one of the country’s first ‘fully digital’ hospitals by next year will improve patient care .

All of the NOC’s surgical operations, outpatient appointments and diagnostic scans such as X-rays and MRI, are now captured on the hospital’s electronic ‘Care Record System’.

It is hoped by 2012 around 100,000 paper files of patient clinical notes, currently stored in floor-to-ceiling archives, will also be stored electronically – freeing more than 440sq m of storage space at the hospital when they are eventually destroyed.

Sir David Nicholson, chief executive of the NHS, visited the Oxford hospital last week to meet staff and see how the system was working.

He said: “I am always struck by the intimate atmosphere in specialist hospitals.

“I can see from walking around what a great hospital NOC is for staff and patients.”

The NOC was one of the first hospitals to trial the IT system in 2005 and next year will see the project completed.

It was part of the £11.4bn National Programme for IT in the NHS (NPfIT) which has currently been shelved by the government.

Sara Randall, the trust’s director of operations and performance, said staff on the hospital wards are already inputting notes directly on to a computer wheeled to the bedside, reducing the risk of paper-based errors such as misfiling or loss of notes.

She said: “The vision is single patient health records held electronically which identify our patients’ medical history, ongoing treatment and care requirements that can be easily shared between health professionals.

“Recording clinical information at the point of assessment ensures the electronic record is accurate and up to date and means clinicians don’t have to trawl through handwritten notes.”

By next year, managers hope to have introduced bar-coded electronic wristbands for patients, electronic check-in for outpatient appointments, and ordering and recording of medication using a scanned barcode.

It is also hoped doctors can monitor patients with long term conditions at home by feeding information electronically back to the hospital.

The hospital’s X-rays and scans are also stored and viewed electronically.

The images can then be transferred instantly to PCs in other departments, including those in GP practices.

Ms Randall said this reduces diagnostic waiting times and the need for patients to carry X-rays to clinic appointments.

She said: “By working together with new technology we can improve the way we plan, deliver, record and communicate to improve the quality and efficiency of our services to patients.

“We are one of the first hospital trusts to implement the system and it will see a more efficiently run hospital, with better methods of recording data and reducing the amount of paper we use.”