Contractual requirements came into force from 1st April 2014 requiring that GP practices should make available a statement of intent in relation to the following IT developments:
- Referral management
- Electronic appointment booking
- On line booking of repeat prescriptions
- Summary care record
- GP2GP transfers
- Patient access to records
Please find below details of the practice stance with regards to these developments:-
Referral management
All practices must include the NHS number as the primary identifier in all NHS clinical correspondence issued by the practice.
This is our current practice, all NHS clinical correspondence issued by the Practice includes the NHS number.
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 the facility for booking appointments online, please speak to reception for more information or to sign up for this service. It is our intention to have the facility to cancel appointments online available to patients by 31st March 2015.
Online booking of repeat prescriptions
Practices are required to promote and offer the facility for all patients, who wish to, to order online, 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 speak to reception for more information.
Interoperable records/Summary Care Record
Practices are required to enable successful automated uploads of any changes to a patient’s summary information, at least on a daily basis to the Summary Care record.
Having your Summary Care Record available will help anyone treating you without your full medical record. They will have access to information about any medication you may be taking and any drugs that you have a recorded allergy or sensitivity to.
Emmer Green Surgery if already live with Summary Care Records, there is more information available on this website. However, if you do not want your medical records to be available in this way then you will need to let us know so that we can update your record. You can do this via the ‘opt out’ form available on this website.
GP2GP record transfers
There is a contractual requirement 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 GP, your medical records will be removed from your previous doctor and forwarded on to your new GP via NHS England. It can take several weeks for your paper records to reach your new surgery. With GP to GP record transfers, your electronic record is transferred to your new practice much sooner.
Emmer Green Surgery confirm that GP2GP transfers are already active and we send and receive patient records via this system.
Patient access to their GP record
Practices 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 items/date such as ‘additional’ record elements which has been agreed between the contractor and the patient.