E-Booking (UK government project)

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e-Booking is a project of the UK Governments 'e-Government' program which was driven by the publishing of the Gershon Review in 2004-5 by Sir Peter Gershon. The eGOV program aimed to introduce efficiencies in local government, cut back on costs and provide a simpler way of the public to interact with local government using new web communication technologies. The eGov initiative is now being replaced with tGOV or transformational government born of the Varney Review December 2006 and many eBookings suppliers have built 'citizen centric' interfaces and interactions within their web interfaces in order to meet Varney's recommendations. eBooking software systems are now in use by many councils that allow citizens to 'look and book' such things as council spaces for weddings, conferences and appointments as well as cultural and sports activities.

eBooking is in common use in Healthcare settings for the use of Information Technology systems to enable hospital appointments to be booked electronically. There it usually refers to the booking of an appointment into one service from another, e.g., from a Primary Care physician to a hospital. It replaces archaic methods of referral which can take a considerable length of time, and offer limited choice to patients.