NHS England will give pharmacies read access to summary care records as a pilot "in the very near future", the commissioning body has announced.

It will invite its area teams and local professional networks to take part and pick "two, possibly three" areas for the scheme, said Alison Hemsworth, senior programme manager of NHS England's community pharmacy contractual framework.

The pilot showed that NHS England was listening to pharmacy's response to its Call to Action consultation on the future of the profession, Ms Hemsworth said at the NPA conference on Sunday (June 8). Results of the scheme would inform further discussions on the sector's patient record access.

The pilot would give pharmacies read-only access but read-write access would require a change in the law, said Alison Hemsworth, senior manager of NHS England's community pharmacy contractual framework	More on patient records access GPs express concern over pharmacist access to surgery records Patient records access could increase litigation risk, warns lawyer Patient records access tops technological wishlist for pharmacists
	"We want to pilot the use of summary care records to see how it works, if it works, and then bring it back to the table to see what we're going to do next," she told C+D. Planning for the pilot was "in the very early stages", she said.

Read-write access to the records would require a change in legislation, Ms Hemsworth added.

NPA public affairs manager Gareth Jones said access to care records was "crucial" for the sector's development. "Pilots will help demonstrate when access to the records is of greatest value in pharmacy and test some of the technical issues," he told C+D yesterday (June 9).

Watch reporter Sam Horti's interview with Alison Hemsworth at the NPA conference

A C+D poll in February suggested that the majority of pharmacists think full access to patients' summary care records would be the most beneficial technology for their business.

The government pledged in January to give pharmacists priority access to patient records to unlock their "tremendous potential" in public health and disease prevention.

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