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Medical Records: Databases

Answer

Since the start of the national programme for information technology, the Department and NHS Connecting for Health have worked closely with individual, and groups of general practitioners (GPs), including the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) Health Informatics Standing Group. At the outset, the aim was to ensure that the wealth of some 20 years experience in clinical computing, in particular clinical noting and medication management, was distilled into the output based specification (OBS) for the integrated care records service. The OBS, which was published in July 2003, set the template for the subsequent procurement of all the clinical systems. Week-long design workshops were held to clearly define complex areas of functionality, in which the input of many GPs, both individual, and as representatives from RCGP and British Medical Association committees, was key.Since that time, representatives of around 60 professional organisations, including 14 Royal Colleges, among them the RCGP, have participated on national advisory groups which provide a forum for debate on development and implementation of the national programme, and the sharing of specialist expertise and experience of organisations that are already benefiting from IT implementation. Of NHS Connecting for Health’s eight National Clinical Leads—senior figures representing different areas of the health service—two are for general practitioners.NHS Connecting for Health continues to engage on a daily basis with clinicians throughout England, and as a direct result of feedback from clinicians, improvements continue to be made across the range of programmes. This involvement is impossible to quantify precisely, but equates to hundreds of staff years of input.With regard to patient confidentiality, while no system can be 100 per cent. secure, we believe that the procedural and technical safeguards surrounding the new electronic care, record service provide an unprecedented degree of assurance of security for national programme systems and services, and confidentiality of the personal data they will contain. With regard to specific evaluation arrangements, a ministerial taskforce was established in 2006 specifically to consider matters relating to confidentiality and patient consent. This taskforce reported in December 2006 and the follow up actions are being overseen by an advisory group chaired by the Deputy Chief Medical Officer. In addition, a contract for independent evaluation of the summary care record early adopter programme, now under way in the north west, has been awarded to a team at University College London. The evaluation will involve extensive fieldwork to capture the views and experiences of GPs, practice managers, nurses, other NHS clinical and management staff, and, of course, patients. The final report of the evaluation will be published in summer 2008, but emerging findings will influence the continued rollout of the summary care record.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

144983; 462 c261-2W

Session

2006-07

Subjects

Databases Medical records

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk