Summary Care Records changes made in Covid-19 to carry on while NHS considers permanent change

The NHS digital has advised that the temporary changes that were made to Summary Care Records (SCRs) are to continue going forward.

SCR additional information (AI) users will continue to be able to provide and use SCR AI under the UK general data protection regulation and the common law duty of confidentiality.

In response to the Covid-19 pandemic and the passage of related legislation, temporary changes were made to Summary Care Records so that SCRs, by default, could contain additional patient information except where patients had indicated to the NHS that they did not want their data to be shared.

PSNC and the Community Pharmacy IT Group have campaigned for pharmacy teams’ access to SCR AI to be extended beyond the pandemic by sharing case study information.

PSNC and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society both wrote to the relevant authorities within the NHS to share the significant evidence highlighting how SCR AI access for pharmacy teams improves patient safety.

A permanent policy change is being considered by NHS England and NHS Improvement.