IT / ELECTRONIC PATIENT RECORDS
STATEMENT OF INTENT FOR CHURCHWOOD MEDICAL PRACTICE
New contractual requirements came into force from 1 April 2014 requiring GP Practices to make available a statement of intent in relation to the following IT developments:
- Summary Care Record (SCR)
- GP to GP Record Transfers
- Patient Online Access to Their GP Record
- Data for commissioning and other secondary care purposes
Please find below details of our statement of intent regarding these developments.
Summary Care Record (SCR)
NHS England requires practices to enable successful automated uploads of any changes to patient’s summary information, at least on a daily basis, to the summary care record (SCR) or have published plans in place to achieve this by 31st of March 2015.
Having your Summary Care Record (SCR) available will help anyone treating you who does not have access to the medical records held by your GP practice. Your SCR contains details of your medications, allergies and any adverse reactions you have experienced. The SCR should only be viewed in emergency or urgent care settings with the explicit consent of the patient unless the patient is unable to give their consent (for example if they are unconscious).
If you do not want your medical records to be available in this way then you will need to let us know so that we can update your record. You can do this via the opt out form which is available on our website: www.churchwood-surgery.co.uk
Dr. Freeman and Partners confirm that your SCR is automatically updated on at least a daily basis to ensure that your information is as up to date as it can possibly be.
GP to GP Record Transfers
NHS England requires practices to utilise the GP2GP facility for the transfer of patient records between practices, when a patient registers or de-registers (not for temporary registration).
It is very important that you are registered with a doctor at all times. If you leave your GP and register with a new GP, your medical records will be removed from your previous doctor and forwarded on to your new GP via NHS England. It can take your paper records up to two weeks to reach your new surgery.
With GP to GP record transfers your electronic record is transferred to your new practice much sooner.
Dr. Freeman and Partners confirm that GP to GP transfers are already active and we send and receive patient records via this system.
Patient Online Services
This practice currently offers the facility for patients:
- to book, view, amend, cancel and print appointments online
- to order online, view and print a list of their repeat prescriptions for drugs, medicines or appliances
- to view online, export or print summary information from their record, relating to medications, allergies and adverse reactions
These services are available, on request, to any patients registered with this practice aged 16 and over. Parents/guardians may request access on behalf of child they care for. However please note that, in line with Royal College General Practitioners guidance, parental access will be withdrawn automatically when the child turns 11.We are now working towards expanding online access to records to include more detailed information on illnesses, procedures, immunisations and test results with effect from 1st March 2016.We will be doing this in the following stages to ensure the necessary processes are in place to safeguard patient confidentiality and promote effective use of records access:
1. | Pilot patient access to full coded records with a small group of patients |
2. | Review this process and identify whether we can improve any aspect |
3. | Promote access to priority patients – for example those with long term conditions |
4. | Offer access to all patients over the age of 16 who request it |
5. | Establish procedures for parents and carers to request online access to record of patients they care for. |
Data for commissioning and other secondary care purposes
It is already a requirement of the Health and Social Care Act that practices must meet the reasonable data requirements of commissioners and other health and social care organisations through appropriate and safe data sharing for secondary uses, as specified in the technical specification for care data.
At Churchwood Medical Practice we have specific arrangements in place to allow patients to “opt out” of care.data which allows for the removal of data from the practice. Please see the page about care.data on our website: www.churchwood-surgery.co.uk
Dr Freeman and Partners confirm these arrangements are in place and that we undertake annual training and audits to ensure that all our data is handled correctly and safely via the Information Governance Toolkit.
If you would like any further information on any of the above, please ask to speak to the Practice / Deputy Manager.