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The Summary Care Record
The Summary Care Record (SCR) is an electronic summary of key health information. A patient’s SCR will contain essential health information about any medicines, allergies and adverse reactions derived from their GP record. Where a patient and their doctor wish to add additional information to the patient’s Summary Care Record, this may be added with the explicit consent of the patient.
In late 2010, Government reviews concluded that a Summary Care Record (SCR) containing core patient information will prove valuable for patients needing emergency care. Therefore the focus of the project is currently creating SCRs that will support the delivery of care in urgent and emergency care settings.
Background information can be found online at: http://www.cfh.nhs.uk/scr
National Roll-out of the Summary Care Record
The SCR is already live in several care settings including: GP Surgeries, Out of hours, emergency departments, acute admissions wards, ambulance trusts and walk in centres.
Over 600 GP Surgeries have access to the SCR and over 4 million patient SCRs have been created. Deployment statistics can be found on the Connecting for Health website.
The SCR Public Information Programme (PIP) informs patients and the public about SCRs and the choices they have. The PIP will precede the creation of the SCRs, to allow patients to express their preferences – patient’s can choose not to have an SCR and it is through this process that they can advise their GP of this.
If patients are not sure whether they wish to have a record, they will be encouraged to seek further information and support, to help them make their decision. The information they are sent includes a helpline telephone number (0845 603 8510) and web address (www.nhscarerecords.nhs.uk), where they can receive further information. The letter may also have details of any local events that the PCT may be planning as part of a public awareness campaign.
Pharmacy Access to the SCR
The previous Government committed to undertaking work with a Summary Care Record early adopter PCT to consider the benefits, governance and practical arrangements of community pharmacists having access to the Summary Care Record. Bradford was chosen as the first site to pilot pharmacy access and planning was well underway.
In late 2010, following the publication of two reviews on the SCR, the focus of the project shifted towards emergency and urgent care and the pharmacy pilot was suspended.
As well as planned service provision, for example the provision of annual Medicines Use Reviews, pharmacies also need to respond to unscheduled requests from patients, for example in certain circumstances, pharmacies can provide prescription only medicines in an emergency to patients. Access to information about patients in this scenario, for example a list of all medicines that the patient has recently been prescribed, has the potential to improve patient safety. PSNC believes that there continues to be value in investigating, at an early opportunity, the benefits of community pharmacy access to the SCR.
Third Party Providers of Electronic Patient Record Solutions
The future lies not in one electronic patient records solution but in inter-operability between multiple solutions, which may be managed by NHS or private providers.
In response to the recent government consultation, 'An Information Revolution,' PSNC highlighted that it is essential that time is invested now in setting and developing standards that will in future support interoperability. This includes standardised clinical terminology such as dm+d and Snomed CT but also standard data sets linked to the provision of care.
The Benefits of Pharmacy Access to Electronic Patient Record
With patient consent, providing community pharmacists with appropriate role-based read and write access to electronic patient records has the potential to greatly improve patient safety, support the development of new services for patients, improve interdisciplinary working and increase the quality and continuity of care provided to patients.
Allowing other professionals to have access to the records made by pharmacists could support the continuity of patient care, for example, providing a patient’s cardiac consultant with access to INR levels recorded during a community pharmacy anticoagulant monitoring clinic. There would also be value in allowing prescribers access to information on medicines that were prescribed but not dispensed and information on interventions made by pharmacists which might impact on future prescribing decisions.
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