New partnerships to speed up and improve care

NHS England has announced that new partnerships will be introduced to provide health and care staff with better and faster access to information about the person in their care.

Currently, many GPs and other care professionals are unable to access crucial patient information quickly if it is held in another part of the health service. However, the improved working model will reduce unnecessary patient tests and improve safety. NHS England has announced that three areas, covering 14 million people, have been chosen to become ‘Local Health and Care Record Exemplars’ (LHCRE).

Each new partnership, Greater Manchester, Wessex and One London, will receive up to £7.5 million over two years to put in place an electronic shared local health and care record that makes the relevant information about people instantly available to everyone involved in their care and support.

Integrating health and social care is proving successful across the health system, with patients found to be leaving hospital earlier, finding hospital and GP visits less stressful, as well as staff being more aware of when and where their patients have appointments.

Simon Eccles, chief clinical information officer for Health and Care, said: “Sharing information for people’s individual care can be lifesaving by quickly providing staff with the details they need, from patient histories to previous test results and care plans. The public already assume their GP Practice and hospital can see their records, now in the NHS’s 70th year through Local Health and Care Records we will start to make this possible.”

Will Smart, chief information officer for Health and Care, said: “Through Local Health and Care Record Exemplars we are raising the bar for how the NHS can improve care through technology. By sharing information across a larger population, we can ensure that as people move across the different parts of the NHS and social care they don’t have to repeat themselves and provide the same information time and again. We were very impressed by the standard of bids we received and the ambition across the country, in the coming weeks we will be talking to those remaining areas to understand which two are ready to join the initial group this year.”