Bradford & Airedale tPCT Pilots Summary Care Records with SystmOne

This article is taken from the Yorkshire & Humber SHA Newslink January 2009.

Bradford and Airedale Teaching Primary Care Trust was one of the first to join the early adopter programme for the NHS Care Records Service, which is introducing Summary Care Records to support unscheduled and out of hours care.

Patients at the Ridge Medical Practice and Frizinghall Medical Centre in Bradford and three practices in Keighley – Farfield Group Practice, Ling House Medical Centre and Holycroft Surgery - will be the first to benefit from having a summary of their health information made available to health professionals treating them whenever it’s needed. Jill Grant is registered with the Ridge Medical Practice. As a frequent user of health services she believes the new Summary Care Record will provide her with better, safer care.

“I have complex health needs and to go from the thread to the needle each time I see a healthcare professional is extremely stressful, especially if I’m feeling unwell. So to have a record like this available will mean that the health professionals will know my medication and the levels I’m taking, will be aware of my long list of allergies and will be able to see if I had any bad reactions to the drugs they might want to give me.”

Jill continues, “I was worried about this at first but now I know only NHS professionals, who are caring for me, will be able to see it. The system has strict security measures in place; those who use it will have to have a Smartcard and a specific reason to look at my record. If I choose I can register for a HealthSpace account and check the details that the doctor has about me. I can still view my HealthSpace account if I go abroad I will be able to access my information easily.”

In December, Ridge Medical Centre was the first practice to upload summary care records to the NHS spine using the LSP solution, SystmOne. In January, Frizinghall Medical Centre also successfully uploaded its summary records paving the way for wider scale rollout of Summary Care Record for users of the LSP service.