Comments invited for NHS electronic record guidance

The Department of Health has issued a revised version of its guidance for records management in the NHS to reflect increasing use of electronic patient and administration records, and has put the document out for consultation.

NHS Connecting for Health announced that it has been working closely with the DH to develop the document, which will replace previous guidance on using electronic patient records in hospitals as well as guidance on GP records. It covers how long records should be retained as public documents, and who is responsible for them.

As well as patient records – both electronic and paper-based – the code of practice includes e-mails, audio and video tapes, CD-ROMs and other administrative records.

The newly-published guidance document makes a special recommendation that in the "mixed economy of paper and electronic records" special care should be taken when transferring between the two to avoid duplications.

"This transitional period will generate significant challenges eg. before patient data is migrated to the national data spine … it will need to be validated to ensure that duplicate registrations are eliminated and steps taken in the local feeder systems to the data spine to ensure that duplicate registrations do not occur in the future," says the initial guidance.

It recommends the establishment of "specific corporate responsibility" for electronic records from their planning to their disposal, and says that a member of staff should be appointed to handle records management.

"The key issues for the management of electronic records are the same as those for the management of any record regardless of media," the guidance points out. "However, the means by which they are addressed needs to be tailored to the different environments."

Guidance on the retention of audit trail retention for electronic records is yet to be published by the DH but has been promised later.

The consultation will be open to all interested stakeholders until 30 September. To participate and to download the draft code of practice, visit the Department of Health website.