Read-only access to SCRs only a 'step' in right direction
The pilot will be of practical use for checking the medication of patients who are not regulars but it should have happened years ago, says contractor Graham Jones of Lambourne Pharmacy
NHS England's plan to grant pharmacies read-only access to summary care records (SCR) is a "first step" towards allowing the sector to amend records, contractors have said.
The plan to trial access to SCR in up to three pilot areas across England would add "clinical value" to pharmacists' work, although the sector would need read-write access to become "completely integrated" into the primary care team, contractors told C+D this week.
Nick Kaye, owner of Nick Kaye's Pharmacy in Newquay, said national access to SCR would be a "fantastic" help to deliver out-of-hours emergency repeat prescriptions to customers who were not regular patients but would be of limited use in other situations.
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The pilot will be of practical use for checking the medication of patients who are not regulars but it should have happened years ago, says contractor Graham Jones of Lambourne Pharmacy |
 More on patient records access
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"Within [normal working] hours, it will only be useful for monitoring long-term conditions when it's read-write access. It's really important that all community pharmacists feed that back [to NHS England]," he told C+D. |
Pharmacies get access to summary care records in NHS trial|
Graham Jones, owner of Lambourne Pharmacy in Berkshire, agreed the pilot would be of "practical use" to pharmacists who needed to check the medication of patients who were not regular visitors. The NHS took a "long time to evolve" and Mr Jones was pleased it was finally moving in the "right direction". "Pharmacy has got to be properly integrated, rather than the splendid isolation we sit in so much of the time. I'd certainly like it to have happened many years ago," he said. Independent Pharmacy Federation chief executive Claire Ward said she was "very much in favour" of the pilot and hoped it would speed up the process of pharmacists getting full access. "As a starting point to bringing pharmacists in, this is an important first step. The ultimate aim has got to be proper shared care records that pharmacists can amend," she told C+D. But Graham Phillips, owner of Manor Pharmacy Group (Wheathampstead) Ltd in Hertfordshire, said NHS England's scheme was "too little too late" and it was "extremely frustrating" that it had not come sooner. |
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The slow road to records accessNovember 2009 Summary care records (SCR) are rolled out in GP surgeries across London, while community pharmacists wait to begin their first pilot of the service. January 2010 NHS IT body Connecting For Health says pharmacies should be made part of the SCR programme "relatively quickly". February 2011 A pilot scheme to give pharmacists access to SCR in Bradford is suspended by the Department of Health, which prioritises granting access to urgent and emergency care staff instead. October 2012 News that patients will be able to view their medical records online from 2015 prompts renewed calls from pharmacy bodies for the sector to have records access. January 2014 Health secretary Jeremy Hunt pledges to give pharmacists priority access to patient records to unlock their "tremendous potential" in public health and disease prevention. March 2014 Health minister Daniel Poulter MP tells the House of Commons that NHS England will use its Call to Action consultation to "explore the possibility" of granting pharmacists access to SCR. |
"We should have had read-write access to the summary care record as part of the original implementation of the electronic prescription service," he told C+D.
The Department of Health told C+D that any proposal for pharmacy to get read-write access to records would need to be considered by its Content and Advisory Board.
NHS England said last week that local pharmacy networks and NHS England's local area teams would receive letters inviting them to take part in the scheme "in the very near future". Alison Hemsworth, senior programme manager of NHS England's community pharmacy contractual framework, said the results of the pilot would inform further discussions on the sector's access to patient records.
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