Information Technology/Electronic Patient Records

New contractural arrangements came into force on 1 April 2014 requiring GP practices to make available a statement of intent about the following IT developments:

1. Referral Management Information
2. Online Appointment Booking
3. Online Booking of Repeat Prescriptions
4. Summary Care Record
5. GP2GP transfers of care records
6. Patient Access to electronic records

Please find below details of the arrangements we have in place for these developments at this Practice.

• Referral Management Information – Practices must include the NHS Number as the primary identifier in all NHS clinical correspondence. All letters and information that The Hart Surgery send to other organisations such as hospitals, have an NHS number clearly shown.
• Electronic appointment booking – Practices are required to promote and offer the facility for all patients, who wish to, to book, view, amend, cancel and print appointments online.  We currently offer booking and cancelling of routine GP appointments online.  Please click here or ask at reception for more details about how to register for this service.
• Online booking of repeat prescriptions – Practices are required to promote and offer the facility for all patients, who wish to, to order on line, view and print a list of their repeat prescriptions for necessary drugs, medicines or appliances.  We currently offer the facility for ordering repeat prescriptions online.  Please ask at reception for more details or click here if you are signed up for Patient Access.
• Interoperable records/Summary Care Record – Practices are required to upload changes to a patient’s summary information, at least daily, to the Summary Care Record.  Having your Summary Care Record available will help other doctors and nurses treating you away from your regular surgery, without your full medical record.  They will have access to information about medication you may be taking and any drugs to which you have a recorded allergy or sensitivity.  Click here for more details about the Summary Care Record http://www.nhscarerecords.nhs.uk/  This function is already live.  However, if you do not want your medical records to be available in this way please let us know.  You can do this via the ‘opt out form’, available at reception, or here.
• GP2GP transfers of Care Records – We are required to utilise the GP2GP facility for the transfer of patient records between practices, when a patient registers or de-registers.  It is very important that you are registered with a doctor at all times.  If you leave your GP and register with a new one, your medical records will be removed from your previous doctor and forwarded to your new GP via NHS England.  It can take several weeks for paper records to reach the new surgery; with GP2GP, your electronic record is transferred to your new practice much sooner.  This function is already live.
• Patient access to their electronic GP record – We are required to promote and offer the facility for patients to view online, export or print any summary of information from their records relating to medications, allergies, adverse reactions and any other additional details which have been agreed with the patient.  This facility is now available via Patient Access – click here if you are signed up for Patient Access otherwise speak to reception about registering for this service.