The Northamptonshire Care Record (NCR) is now live, joining up care records for more than 800,000 people in the county and ensuring that the professionals directly involved in their care can instantly access their information.
The first phase combines more than 829,000 individual records from patients registered with GP practices in Northamptonshire with patient data from Northampton and Kettering General Hospitals and Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (NHFT).
The system is now available for all GP practices across Northamptonshire and is in the process of being rolled out to all health and care providers at NHFT and Northampton and Kettering General Hospitals this month.
The next phase of the project will be for the shared records to also include data from other local organisations, including social care providers, the voluntary and community sector, and East Midlands Ambulance Service.
The Northamptonshire Care Record is powered by Graphnet Health’s CareCentric software. It integrates into existing core IT systems used by the various NHS and local government organisations to give a more complete picture of an individual’s need.
CareCentric will support assessments, data collection, workflow, and notifications across the county so that care is coordinated, planned and integrated effectively around each patient and tailored for their individual requirements. As well as benefiting from a more joined-up approach, patients won’t have to repeatedly tell their story and answer the same questions about their care. It could also mean fewer treatment delays, as previously professionals would often have to rely on phone, email or even post to share important facts about patients.
Kirstie Watson, Digital Director of NHS Northamptonshire Integrated Care Board, said: ‘Going live with the Northamptonshire Care Record is a major milestone, enabling health and care teams instant access to the information that they need to provide care.
‘This system will fundamentally change care for patients and professionals. Digitally bringing together the most up-to-date information held by different health and care providers means professionals will have faster access to a fuller picture of a patient’s health to be able to make better-informed decisions.
‘For patients, this system will help make it quicker and easier for them to get the right treatment at the right time.
‘This new innovative tool will help us deliver the best possible health and care for our county. Ultimately that’s our goal.’
Further phases of the project will include the analysis of population health data from across the county, so care providers can better understand and manage the population’s health and care needs, and also target interventions at relevant individuals or groups to ensure they get access to the services needed.
