Warning on patient data from medicines reviews
- 16 January 2006
Pharmacists are being warned not to e-mail medicines use reviews to GPs until concerns over confidentiality have been addressed.
The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee says there has been an “exponential increase” in the number of medicines use reviews (MURs) currently being carried out by pharmacists and that many GPs have asked to receive the MUR forms electronically.
However very few of England’s 10,500 pharmacists are so far connected to N3 and the NHS email system, Contact, so use of e-mail could put the security of confidential patient information at risk.
The PSNC has asked Connecting for Health to provide advice to the profession on whether it is acceptable to e-mail the MUR forms from an e-mail account outside of Contact. In the meantime it is advising pharmacists not to e-mail MURs.
The committee says a short term alternative may be for electronic copies of MUR forms to be saved to a CD-ROM or other memory device such as a USB memory stick and then be taken to the GP surgery.
MURs were introduced as an advanced service under the new pharmacy contract in April 2005. Pharmacists receive a payment for reviewing medication with patients and then sending a record of the review and any recommended changes to the patient’s GP.
The problems over electronic MURs and IT links with GP surgeries has also been taken up by the All Party Pharmacy Group of MPs. The group is to raise the issue at a meeting with Jane Kennedy, the health minister responsible for pharmacy, next week.
Connecting for Health told EHI Primary Care in December that MURs are not part of CfH’s remit.
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