GPs representatives are to hear calls for a public inquiry into the cost of the NHS Care Records Service (CRS) at the national local medical committees’ (LMCs) conference next week. Doctors will also consider a call for Choose and Book to be suspended.
A priority motion at the LMCs conference demands that a public inquiry should examine the costs of the CRS to date and whether it is a cost effective use of public funds. The same motion also deplores the potential restriction of access to services for those who opt-out of uploading their records to the spine and demands that additional funding should be provided to GP practices for the work involved in uploading records to the spine.
Devon LMC is one of 13 LMCs that has submitted critical motions to the LMCs conference on the NCRS. Chief officer Dr Peter Joliffe said that while there was support in principle in Devon for the concept of the CRS doctors felt that the current proposals endangered patient confidentiality and cost too much money for the potential benefit that would accrue.
He told EHI Primary Care: “They are wasting taxpayers’ money and NHS money. We are particularly upset that the national view appears to be that patients will not have to give full informed consent before their details go on to the spine.”
Dr Joliffe said he believed most patients had no idea about what the government was planning and that the CRS was designed more for statistical purposes than for the benefit of the individual patients. He added: “I believe this is one thing we might actually be able to do something about.”
Other motions on the LMCs’ agenda on the CRS include one from Worcestershire LMC asking the General Practitioner Committee to advise patients to opt-out of the NCRS and stating that the conference has no confidence in the reassurances on confidentiality given by the Department of Health and Connecting for Health.
On Choose and Book the conference will hear a call that the e-booking scheme is “currently unfit for purpose” and that it should be suspended until such time as the system is efficient and effective.
Redbridge LMC is one of the 13 LMCs that have submitted critical motions on Choose and Book demanding its suspension and criticising the manipulation of Choose and Book by hospital trusts. Other LMCs criticised hospitals and primary care organisations which refused to allow booking to named consultants.
However Liverpool LMC has submitted a motion which will be debated at the conference applauding the introduction of Choose and Book as “one of the best things to happen for primary care” both for patient autonomy and choice.
The LMCs conference takes place on June 14 and 15 in London.
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