Government plans new model for Summary Care Record


Ian Quinn writes in Pulse, the GP magazine, under an “exclusive” tag:

The Government is planning to switch to a scaled back, ‘patient-held’ electronic care record, severing central control over the controversial programme, but stopping short of scrapping it altogether.

A senior Government source told Pulse of moves to substantially reform the Summary Care Record after researchers found it had spectacularly failed to deliver a raft of promised benefits to patients and doctors.

The official evaluation, by researchers at University College London, concluded the programme’s problems were so deep routed they could not be solved, and claimed senior IT managers had deliberately rushed the rollout in the run-up to the election to save it from the axe.

The Department of Health’s signal that it plans a more patient-focused approach to the care record came as it emerged that almost 90% of nearly 9 million patients who have been mailed information may have given consent without realising it.