Anger at CMO’s request to forward opt-out coupons
England’s chief medical officer Sir Liam Donaldson has written to all GPs asking them to forward to the Department of Health any letters from patients wanting to opt out of the NHS Care Records Service. The letter has enraged GP representatives who claim it would be a gross breach of privacy to forward letters from […]
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Local sealed envelopes ‘probably safer’
A risk analysis conducted for NHS Connecting for Health has concluded that patient care would probably be safer using locally held sealed envelopes rather than storing them on the NHS data spine. The recommendations in the internal document, written by risk management company Det Norske Veritas and delivered to CfH in September, would seem to […]
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Wales starts summary record project
Out of hours clinicians in Gwent are to have access to an emergency summary care record in a project which is expected to eventually cover the whole of Wales. The Emergency Health Record (EHR) to be used in Gwent from this month closely mirrors the emergency care summary project in Scotland as well as elements […]
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Newspaper prints “opt out” coupons for Spine
A national newspaper is advising readers how to opt out of the NHS Summary Care Record (SCR) on the national Spine database. The Guardian today prints a clippable coupon bearing a letter which it advises concerned readers to send to the health secretary, Patricia Hewitt, with a copy to their GPs. The letter lists 10 […]
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On the road
EHIPC talks to GP clinical lead Professor Mike Pringle about how CfH will use its new national GP engagement workshops.
Feature
Pharmacists call for greater say in CRS taskforce
The leading high street pharmacy operators have criticised the exclusion of pharmacists from the government’s NHS Summary Care Record Taskforce and called for pharmacists to have full read-and-write access to the record. The Company Chemists’ Association, which represents the majority of UK multiple pharmacies including Boots, Lloyds and Asda, claim that other healthcare professionals do […]
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Cayton to lead summary records taskforce
Patients’ ‘tsar’ and chair of the Care Records Development Board, Harry Cayton, will lead the taskforce set up to help get the NHS Summary Care Record underway and resolve outstanding issues over its introduction, it was announced today. The taskforce membership will also include leaders from the main clinical professions and representatives from patient groups […]
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GP lead warns on political perils
Connecting for Health GP clinical lead, Dr Gillian Braunold, has challenged colleagues to keep arguments about the minutiae of IT modernisation out of the press and warned that continuing headlines could undermine political confidence. “Do we have to have arguments about technical issues on the front page of the press?” she asked the audience at […]
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GP leads reject consent plan for care records
The national representative body of GPs has decided to reject Connecting for Health’s (CfH) modified plan for the summary care record because it is not based on an opt-in consent model. The British Medical Association’s General Practitioner Committee (GPC) met last week to discuss the revised plans and said afterwards it had ‘strong concerns’ about the […]
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Patient records may only be shared locally, say CfH
Detailed electronic patient records will not be accessible outside the local groups of organisations that created them, in direct contradiction of the government’s vision of records available “wherever and whenever you need them”, it has emerged. An internal document produced by Connecting for Health reveals that although its proposed consent model would allow clinicians across […]
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