Common information practices shared data and electronic records

Accepted.
There is both a need for common information practices that support the extraction of data to central systems to support improvements in data quality and service provision, and a need for electronic patient systems.
The Health and Social Care Act 2012 gives the Secretary of State for Health and NHS England powers to publish, or adopt, data standards that specify how data should be processed. To support this work the Health and Social Care Information Centre also publishes performance information and statistics, using transparent calculations, so that they can be used across the health and care system. The Health and Social Care Information Centre’s Indicator Portal which will extend this service.
Access to the summary care record is being rolled out across England and we will assess options for making them more accessible electronically.
We also agree that patients should have access to their own records. By spring 2015 every patient will be able to see their records, test results, book appointments and order repeat prescriptions online. See Everyone Counts: Planning for Patients 2013–14 (NHS England, December 2012). Patients will also be able to communicate with their practice electronically as outlined in The Power of Information (Department of Health, May 2012).
While we expect practices to make patients’ records available online as fully possible, some practices will only be able to make records available from a specific date due to the way the records were stored originally.
The Department of Health is committed to connecting existing systems rather than expecting every organisation to use the same technology, see Liberating the NHS: An Information Revolution (Department of Health, July 2010) and The Power of Information (Department of Health, May 2012). As such, GP practices will set specific requirements for electronic patient records locally, based on national standards to ensure that information can be shared across the system. As such it is for local organisations to consider the substance of the points raised in this recommendation in that light.
Some national standards have already been set, including the use of the NHS number, and further standards will be included in NHS England’s Technology Strategy, which is due to be published in early 2014.
As part of NHS England’s publication Safer Hospitals, Safer Wards: Achieving an Integrated Digital Care Record (July 2013) it announced a £260 milliontechnology fund that can be used by NHS Foundation Trusts and NHS Trusts to progress their activities to replace paper based systems for patient notes with integrated digital care records. NHS organisations can also apply for funding to support them improve efficiency, quality and safety by introducing ePrescribing systems.

The NHS App was launched in January 2019. It was designed as a standard, branded, trustworthy, online tool for people to use to find health information and access NHS services. It works seamlessly with other services at national and local levels and, where appropriate, is integrated into patient pathways.

As a result of changes in the GP Contract, since April 2020 patients now have the right to access their GP health records on request online.

The Federated Data Platform has been developed to bring operational data together to help staff access the information they need to carry out their work effectively. This could be bed data, the size of waiting lists and the availability of medical supplies. It will make it easier for health and care organisations to work together, compare data and analyse it at different geographic, demographic and organisational levels.

Access to the Summary Care Record is progressing well with just over 40 million records available and NHS England is leading work to ensure a third of Accident and Emergency Services, 111 Services and Ambulance Services will have access to Summary Care Records by 2015. NHS England’s business plan for 2014/15 - 2016/2017 also outlines a key deliverable that online access to GP records would be available in 95% of GP practices from March 2015.

The timescales for an NHS England Technology Strategy have been impacted by the development of a National Information Board Framework which covers the whole of the health and care system and all of the arms-length bodies. The criticality of NHS number and delivery via a standards-based approach to enable interoperability and exchange of data is pivotal in the National Information Board Framework, which was published in November. NHS England will then publish its Technology and Data Strategy for which the use of NHS Number and a standards-based approach will again be vital.

The intention is to put citizens in control of the decisions about their own healthcare and how they access services, be it online access to their medical record; online booking of services e.g. appointments and repeat prescriptions and access to trusted NHS “apps” and social networks.

This recommendation was accepted by the Government.

In the January 2014 Hard Truths report, the Government said that Health and Social Care Act 2012 gave the Secretary of State for Health and NHS England powers to publish, or adopt, data standards, that specified how data should be processed, with the Health and Social Care Information also publishing performance information and statistics to be used across the health and care system. The Government referred to access to the summary care record being rolled out across England, with the Department of Health to review options for making them more accessible electronically.

The Government stated that, by spring 2015, all patients would be able to see their records, test results, book appointments and order repeat prescriptions online.

GP practices were to set specific requirements for electronic patient records locally, based on national standards to ensure that information can be shared across the system.

In the February 2015 Culture Change report, the Government said that access to the summary Care Record was progressing well, with just over 40 million records available. The Government also said that the timescales for an NHS England Technology Strategy had also been impacted by the development of National Information Board Framework.