Government wants to 'improve' SCR opt-out

Health minister Simon Burns has said a review of England's electronic health records (EHRs) must lead to patients and doctors feeling 'ownership'

Burns said Scotland's experience of EHRs, with a system for use in emergencies covering almost the entire population, shows that they are worth introducing in England.

"However, effective use of the SCR depends on patients and doctors feeling an ownership of the records," the minister added in a parliamentary written answer on 26 July 2010.

"We believe the current processes that are in place need to be reviewed to ensure that both the information that patients receive, and the process by which they opt-out, are as clear and simple as possible. In addition, should patients choose to opt-out they must be able to do so as early in the process as is feasible," he said.

"We intend to review the content of the record and consider whether we can improve the process whereby patients can opt-out."

Burns confirmed that strategic health authorities have been told not to send out more information letters concerning SCRs until the review has been completed.

The statement came as Dr Paul Cundy, a GP and former chair of the British Medical Association's GP IT committee, recommended that his peers add a code to all patient records stopping them from being turned into SCRs, unless patients have clearly said they want to take part.

"For any patient who's not explicitly told them that they want to have a SCR, GPs should enter a 93C3 Read code into their notes," he said. "This will stop any uploads to the SCR and will enable the system to run on an explicit opt-in basis, which is what everyone has been demanding."

Dr Cundy said he will be adding the codes to his patients' records by the end of the month, without informing them that he is doing this. He said that the critical report on SCRs led by Professor Trisha Greenhalgh justified this, as it showed that SCRs are "positively unsafe".

"Hopefully we can now start constructive discussions as to how to rebuild the English SCR along the lines of the much more successful systems in Scotland and Wales," he added.

• Doctors find errors in tenth of SCRs

  Birmingham's local medical committee (LMC) has found that 10% of local summary care records have not been updated properly

• NHS reforms could unravel SCRs

  The government's white paper could lead to scrapping the current central patient database, but electronic health records are very much part of the coalition's plans

• SCRs have cost NHS £96m

  Healthcare IT minister Simon Burns has said the government has invested £96.7m in summary care records to date, with plans to spend a further £48.8m

Close