In February, GPs in England were ordered to reinstall GP Connect technology - which allows pharmacies to send routine consultation information to their patients’ GP practices - after switching it off en masse in June last year.
But the British Medical Association (BMA) has now revealed that it is “in further discussions” with NHSE amid concerns that GPs will be “liable” for information entered into patient records by pharmacies.
Read more: Blood pressure cap driven by GPs ‘dumping’ workload
In a new set of FAQs, it warned that GPs will “become liable” for any “third-party information” after “accepting - either automatically or by manually reviewing - any incoming information to the GP record”.
“We are in further discussions with NHSE about this as it clearly raises concerns for GPs as data controllers,” it said.
“Abnormal or erroneous”
The BMA also raised concerns that GPs will be “responsible for abnormal or erroneous results entered by a pharmacy”.
“The GP takes over responsibility at the point at which that data becomes part of the GP record [so] abnormal results will need review and a decision will need to be made on any further action,” it said.
It added that its GP Committee will also “clarify this ahead of October 1”, when the mandate to switch on the functionality comes into force.
Read more: Quarter of GPs still not referring any patients to Pharmacy First
The GP Connect “Update Record” functionality allows pharmacies providing NHS services such as Pharmacy First to “submit coded and free-text information directly to the patient’s GP system supplier for inclusion into the GP clinical record”, the BMA explained.
This “community pharmacy consultation record” includes details such as any medicines supplied, with the data available to patients via the NHS App, it added.
The BMA stressed that there is “no need” for practices to “make any changes prior to October 1”.
GP (dis)Connect
In April, C+D exclusively revealed that pharmacists were finally able to update GP records with Pharmacy First consultation data after delays to the functionality since the common conditions service launched in January meant they had to use “cumbersome alternatives”.
But in June, practices turned off GP Connect functionality en masse after the BMA warned that the update record function “could potentially further enable workload and subtle responsibility transfer from an external provider directly to the GP in the future”.
Read more: GPs ordered to switch on GP Connect by new contract
Then in February, GPs were told they would be “required to ensure the functionality in GP Connect is enabled” by “no later than October 1 2025” as part of the 2025/26 GP contract - which also delivered an “overall increase in investment of £889m” for practices.
And in March, C+D revealed that Cegedim Rx had become the first pharmacy technology provider to switch on the “access record” function on its clinical services platform – allowing pharmacists to see patients’ GP record data on medications, investigations and observations.
Read more: Exclusive: Pharmacists now able to read patient GP records
Meanwhile, the pharmacy minister this month revealed that one in four GP practices still do not refer a single patient to the Pharmacy First service each month.
And Community Pharmacy England (CPE) has said that incoming restrictions to funded blood pressure checks have been driven by GPs “inappropriately” referring patients and “dumping workload”.
