Published on August 14th 2019 by Katie Thorn

Summary Care Record pilot underway in care homes

There is currently a pilot taking place in a small number of care homes which allows care staff to view the Summary Care Record.

When we share information with other health and care providers we often use fax, post, hand delivery or the phone. Sometimes, information is not shared at all or goes missing. It can also arrive too late to help with providing care. This makes it difficult for us to access the information we need to provide high quality care and support.

By viewing an individual’s Summary Care Record (SCR) with their permission, you will have access to an electronic record of important clinical information, created from their GP medical records. They can also be seen and used by authorised staff in other areas of the health and care system involved in the individual’s direct care.

Access to SCR information means that care is safer, reducing the risk of prescribing errors. It also helps avoid delays to urgent care.

What is the Summary Care Record (SCR)?

As a minimum, the SCR holds important information about;

• Current medication
• Allergies and details of any previous bad reactions to medicines
• Name, address, date of birth and NHS number of the patient

The individual can also choose to include additional information in the SCR, such as

• what is important to them
• details of disabilities and/or long-term conditions
• significant medical history
• or specific communications needs.

The home manager from one of the pilot sites said:

“[Having access to the Summary Care Record] has allowed us to ensure we have all the information about our Residents to look after them safely and correctly by having all of the information available.  It is also very time saving for us when we have a new admission as we can check all the information that they come in with and saves us having to ring the surgeries.”

The below dashboard shows which areas of the country are enriching SCRs here.

Currently the viewing of Summary Care Records (SCRs) in Adult Social Care and Care Providers is undergoing a pilot implementation in a small number of organisations. This is not approved for further rollout just yet. It is likely SCR will be more widely available in these settings later in 2019 after consultation with the sector.

Current scope of SCR viewing here.

For more information on the SCR pilot in care settings please contact: liveservices.operations@nhs.net

Read more information and guidance from Digital Social Care.

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