Statement of Intent

New contractual requirements came into force from 1 April 2014 requiring that GP Practices should make available a statement of intent in relation to the following IT developments:

• Summary Care Record (SCR)
• GP to GP Record Transfers
• Patient Online Access to Their GP Record
• Data for commissioning and other secondary care purposes

The same contractual obligations require that we have a statement of intent regarding these developments in place and publicised by 30 September 2014.

Please find below details of the practices stance with regards to these points.

Summary Care Record (SCR)

If you are registered with a GP practice in England you will already have a Summary Care Record (SCR), unless you have previously chosen not to have one by opting out

Your SCR will contain key information about the medicines you are taking, allergies you suffer from and any adverse reactions to medicines you have had in the past. This information is not routinely shared across different healthcare organisations and systems.

If you need to be treated by health and care professionals in other organisations such as hospitals having a Summary Care Record can help healthcare staff treating you from other hospitals and care providers with vital information from your health record. This will help the staff involved in your care make better and safer decisions about how best to treat you.

You have a choice

You have the choice of what information you would like to share and with whom. Authorised healthcare staff can only view your SCR with your permission and the information shared will only be used for the benefit of your care.

Your choices outlined below.

• Express consent for medication, allergies and adverse reactions only. You wish to share information about medication, allergies and adverse reactions only.
• Express consent for medication, allergies, adverse reactions and additional information. You wish to share information about medication, allergies and adverse reactions and further medical information that includes: Your significant illnesses and health problems, operations and vaccinations you have had in the past, how you would like to be treated (such as where you would prefer to receive care), what support you might need and who should be contacted for more information about you.
• Express dissent for Summary Care Record (opt out). Select this option, if you DO NOT want any information shared with other healthcare professionals.

The sharing of this additional information during the pandemic period will assist healthcare professionals involved in your direct care and has been directed via the Control of Patient Information (COPI) Covid-19 – Notice under Regulation 3(4) of the Health Service Control of Patient Information Regulations 2002.

You are free to change your decision at any time by informing your GP practice.

 If you require any more information, please visit http://digital.nhs.uk/scr/patients or phone NHS Digital on 0300 303 5678 or speak to your GP practice.

GP to GP Record Transfers

NHS England require practices to utilise the GP2GP facility for the transfer of patient records between practices, when a patient registers or de-registers (not for temporary registration).
It is very important that you are registered with a doctor at all times. If you leave your GP and register with a new GP, your medical records will be removed from your previous doctor and forwarded on to your new GP via NHS England. It can take your paper records up to two weeks to reach your new surgery.

With GP to GP record transfers your electronic record is transferred to your new practice much sooner.

The practice confirms that GP to GP transfers are already active and we send and receive patient records via this system.

Patient Online Access to Their GP Record

We currently offer the facility for cancelling appointments and also for ordering your repeat prescriptions and viewing a summary of your medical records online. If you do not already have a user name and password for this system please ask the receptionist to provide you with one. If you require access to your records online please request this option when you log in to your account.

Data for commissioning and other secondary care purposes

It is already a requirement of the Health and Social Care Act that practices must meet the reasonable data requirements of commissioners and other health and social care organisations through appropriate and safe data sharing for secondary uses, as specified in the technical specification for care data.

At our practice we have specific arrangements in place to allow patients to “opt out” of care. Data which allows for the removal of data from the practice. Please see the page about care data on our website.

The Practice confirm these arrangements are in place and that we undertake annual training and audits to ensure that all our data is handled correctly and safely via the Information Governance Toolkit.