British Medical Association Responds To Independent Report On Shared Electronic Patient Records

Main Category: IT / Internet / E-mail
Also Included In: Public Health
Article Date: 06 May 2008 - 2:00 PDT

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Following today's (Tuesday 6 May 2008) publication of the independent evaluation by University College London (UCL) of the Summary Care Record1 in England, Chairman of the BMA's Working Party on IT, Dame Deirdre Hine, said today:

"The BMA is pleased that UCL's report has covered all the important issues in the development of the summary care record. Connecting for Health2 now has clear guidance on the changes necessary to make the project both more effective and acceptable to patients and those concerned with their care.

"We support the recommendation to move to a 'consent to view'3 system which would meet much of the concern about informed consent expressed by doctors and gives patients appropriate control of their personal data. We hope that Connecting for Health will move quickly in responding to this guidance and we wish to continue to provide advice on how to achieve the necessary changes. However, we would strongly urge that until these changes are made there should be no further roll out of the scheme beyond the pilot sites already taking part."

1. The Summary Care Record is a centrally stored electronic patient health summary to support emergency and unscheduled care. It consists of an initial upload of a patient's medication and allergies from the GP record.

2. Connecting for Health is the NHS body with responsibility for overseeing the introduction of the new NHS Care Records Service and the delivery of the National programme for IT in England.

3. A consent to view model would mean that a patient would be asked explicitly, on each occasion, before their summary record is viewed, for example during out of hours care or when they go to A&E.

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