The Joint GP IT Committee (JGPITC) has urged NHS England (NHSE) to postpone GP Connect Update Record’s October 1 switch-on date amid concerns of “incorrect” patient records.
IT officials from the British Medical Association (BMA) and the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) said in a joint letter published this week (September 15) that pharmacies are reviewing “almost 15,000 records that may have been incorrectly coded”.
Some of the incorrect codes are now “part of the GP record”, the JGPITC added.
Read more: GPs ordered to switch on GP Connect by new contract
GP Connect Update Record, first rolled out in March last year, is a service that allows pharmacists to send summaries from Pharmacy First, blood pressure check and contraception consultations to GP practices.
In the letter, the JGPITC referred to a “major incident” earlier this year in which pregnancy codes “that may have been incorrect” were sent to practices “following Pharmacy First and contraception consultations”.
“Unresolved risks”
The JGPITC said it had warned NHSE “prior to the rollout about unresolved risks of including certain codes” and had highlighted pregnancy as being “high risk and warranting reconsideration”.
It said that having assessed the situation at a meeting earlier this month, it “does not yet feel” that the service “as implemented with the Pharmacy First information model can command the confidence of the profession”.
Read more: BMA ‘in further discussions’ over GP Connect switch on
“Pharmacy First is the first of many services to use this new technology, so it is essential that the profession has confidence in the product before mass rollout,” it added.
The JGPITC advised in its letter that the October 1 switch-on date be “put on hold until the concerns have been resolved”.
Read more: Exclusive: Pharmacists now able to read patient GP records
The committee also set out “minimum necessary steps” for the NHSE to reassure it that the Update Record function is “ready for general acceptance”.
The steps included a “frank acknowledgement” from NHSE that “the information model is NHS England’s, and it is accountable for it and its clinical safety”.
Read more: GPs switch off update patient record function in new Pharmacy First IT twist
Last July, large numbers of GPs switched off the Update Record function of GP Connect, after guidance published by the BMA warned that it “allows any permitted third-party provider to not only view the GP clinical record but also add coded and free text data directly into it”.
But NHSE told GPs in February that they will be required to switch the Update Record function back on “by no later than October 1, 2025” as part of their £889m-boosted contract.
Read more: Revealed: GP referrals to Pharmacy First down by quarter in a year
The JGPITC’s letter comes after the BMA revealed in May that it was in discussions with NHSE amid concerns that GPs will be “liable” for information entered into patient records by pharmacies.
“We are in further discussions with NHSE about this as it clearly raises concerns for GPs as data controllers,” it said at the time.
