Plans for patients to be able to access and contribute to their shared care records are ‘underway’, according to a Government white paper on health and social care integration.
It reaffirms the Government’s goal of having shared care records ‘for all citizens by 2024 that provide a single, functional health and care record which citizens, caregivers and care teams can all safely access’.
Patients will be able to not only ‘access’ their record via NHS.uk and the NHS app, but also ‘contribute’ to it, the plan added.
The white paper, published yesterday (9 February), said: ‘Every ICS will need to ensure that all constituent organisations have a base level of digital capabilities and are connected to a shared care record by 2024 enabling individuals, their approved caregivers and their care team to view and contribute to the record.’
And it added: ‘Work is also underway to enable citizens to be able to access and contribute to their shared care records, building on successes to date.’
Patients will also be able to view their GP records via the NHS app from April this year, although they will not be able to make changes.
It comes as a draft data strategy published in June 2021 said patients will be able to add information about their food, sleep and exercise to their GP record.
The strategy set out Government ambitions for each ICS to have a ‘basic shared care record’ between GPs and hospitals by the end of September 2021.
Basic shared care records are ‘now in place in all but one ICS’, the new white paper confirmed.
The white paper also said:
- A final version of the draft data strategy from June 2021 will be published in ‘Winter 2021/22′
- The DHSC wants to ‘build on’ the recruitment of roles in primary care through ‘rotational and joint employment models’, to ‘encourage movement of staff within and between sectors’.
- The Government continues to enhance access to information and services, including being able to ‘book appointments with their GP, order prescriptions, set preferences for data usage and organ donation, and access their Covid Pass’ directly through NHS.uk and the NHS app.
- Primary care should be ‘incentivised’ to ‘support social care outcomes’.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: ‘The pandemic highlighted what our fantastic NHS and local government can achieve when they work together – from delivering the phenomenal vaccine rollout to supporting those who were shielding.
‘We now want to build on these successes, joining up health and social care even more to deliver the best possible care – whether you want to see a GP quickly or live independently with dementia.’
Health secretary Sajid Javid said: ‘Ensuring our health and care systems work in unison will mean we can support hardworking staff, provide better care to patients and deliver value for the taxpayer.
‘Our integration white paper is part of our wider plans to reform and recover the health and social care system, ensuring everyone gets the treatment and care they need, when and where they need it.’
In October, plans to enable patient access to GP records via the NHS app were delayed until April 2022, after the BMA wrote to NHSX expressing their concerns about the timing of the rollout.
This story first appeared on our sister title, Pulse.
