Northamptonshire links digital care plans to NHS Record Locator

Patients receiving urgent or emergency care away from home could benefit from faster access to treatment recommendations after Integrated Care Northamptonshire expanded digital care plans through the NHS National Record Locator (NRL).

Integrated Care Northamptonshire expanded access to digital Recommended Summary Plan for Emergency Care and Treatment (ReSPECT) plans and Electronic Palliative Care Coordination System (EPaCCS) records through the NRL. Paper records were replaced with ReSPECT plans across all acute hospitals in February 2025.

EPaCCS, which allows end-of-life and advance care planning information to be shared electronically, was then launched at the end of May 2026 before access through the NRL went live on 3 July 2026.

The move allows authorised clinicians across England to identify and securely access vital care planning information when patients require treatment outside their local area, helping improve clinical decision-making in emergency situations.

The rollout builds on Northamptonshire’s wider digital transformation programme, with NHS England recently ranking the integrated care system as England’s most digitally mature ICS.

It also extends the reach of the Northamptonshire Care Record, provided by Graphnet Health, enabling key care planning information to be accessed beyond local health and care organisations.

Matthew Hutton, digital lead at Integrated Care Northamptonshire, said: “The National Record Locator helps us ensure that important care planning information can be accessed by the right professionals at the right time, wherever patients receive care.

“Alongside this, we’ve worked closely with colleagues across Northamptonshire, including University Hospitals of Northamptonshire, to make ReSPECT the single place where CPR decisions and emergency care recommendations are recorded.

“That has enabled us to create more than 12,000 live ReSPECT plans across the county, helping ensure clinicians are working from the same, up-to-date information and reducing the risk of important decisions not being shared.

“By making ReSPECT and EPaCCS information more visible across the NHS, we can support better coordinated care and help ensure that people’s wishes are understood and respected, particularly in urgent and emergency situations.”

Alongside the NRL implementation, Northamptonshire has created more than 12,000 live ReSPECT plans as part of a programme to digitise emergency care planning across the county.

A key element of the work has involved collaboration with University Hospitals of Northamptonshire to replace paper Do Not Attempt Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (DNACPR) forms with digital ReSPECT plans.

The approach creates a single shared record for cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) decisions and emergency treatment recommendations, reducing the risk of information being unavailable when patients move between care settings.

Unlike a centralised patient record, the NHS National Record Locator does not store clinical information.

Instead, it enables authorised health and care professionals to identify where records are held and securely access them when needed, avoiding duplication while making important information easier to locate.

The change means ambulance crews and emergency department clinicians treating patients outside their usual care area may be able to access previously agreed treatment recommendations, preferred place of care and other clinical decisions, reducing the need for patients and families to repeat sensitive conversations during emergencies.

Since going live in 2023, the Northamptonshire Care Record has enabled authorised professionals across the county to securely access the health and care information of more than 800,000 people.

In February 2026, Northamptonshire Integrated Care Board said its shared care record programme was on track to deliver more than £1 million in savings over the lifetime of the project.