Q. Why are we creating a Dorset Care Record and how will it work?
A. At present, health and social care organisations in Dorset may hold different sets of records about you. Information in different records may be duplicated or incomplete. The Dorset Care Record (DCR) is a new confidential computer record that will, over time, include a range of health and social care shared information to help improve the care you receive.
Sharing appropriate information electronically to a single place, will offer direct access for authorised health and social care professionals to provide as full a picture as possible for your history, needs, support and service contacts. It will join records and systems together for the first time in Dorset. In the longer term, the aim is to offer you access to your record. Everyone will be opted-in to the system you will have an opportunity to opt out if you wish to.
Q. I’ve already been asked by my GP if its OK to share my records so is this not duplication and is it really necessary?
A. Yes, your GP records may already be shared under current systems with acute hospital services but the DCR will bring together records from a much wider range of adult and children’s services, community and mental health and other records across Dorset to provide you with better continuity of care.
Q. So what is the difference between the Summary Care Record (SCR) and the DCR?
A. The Summary Care Record, is a national initiative but currently only GPs can update. Health and care staff can access the DCR through the Spine web portal.
- Patients can ask to view or add information to their SCR by visiting their GP practice
- The SCR holds important but limited information about current medication, allergies and details of any previous bad reactions to medicines
- It also has details of name, address, date of birth and NHS number of patient
- Local authorities are unable to update or view the SCR
- The SCR can be enhanced
The Dorset Care Record is a Dorset-wide partnership initiative bringing everyone’ s health details together so medical and social care staff can give people the best possible care.
- All partners can update the record
- Nine partners (Borough of Poole, Bournemouth Borough Council, Dorset Clinical Commissioning Group, Dorset County Council, Dorset County Hospital, Dorset HealthCare, Poole Hospital, Royal Bournemouth & Christchurch Hospital) can agree who sees what
- Comprehensive information as locally agreed
- Potential for creating shared content in portal
- Citizen access planned
Q. This is a good idea but I’m worried about security issues following the hacking of some NHS records earlier this year. How secure will my record be?
A. We and our partners take data security extremely seriously. As part of our cyber security approach, all access to information is via a highly secure access portal limited to approved NHS and Local Authority health and social care professionals. The DCR will only be used to improve the case and support we provide to you. It will never be sold to insurance companies or drug firms.
By law, everyone working in, or behalf of, the NHS and adult social care must follow strict information governance rules designed to respect patient privacy and keep all information about you safe. The DCR will keep a record of everyone who has accessed a record, the time and date when they have accessed it and the information they were viewing. The laws on data protection are clear and we take them very seriously. The DCR Partnership has signed up to the Dorset Information Sharing Charter (DiSC) which governs how we share personal data with each other in line with legislation.
Q. Why haven’t I heard about the DCR before?
A. We will be providing you with visible, unambiguous instructions through a consent leaflet which will also be available as an Easy Read leaflet. We will circulate all leaflets and posters across all doctor’s surgeries, pharmacies, acute and community hospitals, libraries and council buildings. We will back this up with online information through regular updates on our dedicated DCR website, our twitter feed, through videos and news releases. We aim to reach people via parish councils and community/parish newsletters as well as attending community events.
The first phase of the DCR goes live in the autumn so we aim over the next few months to get out important messages about the DCR. We will not be writing to individual households in the county. Research with several previous health consultations showed that only 30% of people recalled having received communications through this way and we believe it is not cost-effective to do this due to the prohibitive costs.
Q. I’m very busy – I won’t have to do anything about this will I?
A. When the DCR goes live, your doctor or your health/social care professional will ask you whether you’re happy for your records to be shared. If you are, you won’t have to do anything else.
Q. So will this just cover Dorset or wider afield? Will it work if I’m treated in a neighbouring hospital or say in London?
A. The DCR only includes information from local health and care organisations and GP practices. Currently, no other organisations outside the county will be able to access or update your record. As some residents are sent to hospitals outside of Dorset, we are working with Salisbury, Yeovil and Southampton hospitals to ensure that in time they should be able to add information to your care record.
Q. When will further information on consent options be available?
A. This will be available shortly. Initially, everyone will have a record containing information about your health and care needs in the DCR. However, until you give your consent to share the information to a GP, clinician or social care practitioner, only minimal data will be visible, such as your name, NHS number, gender and date of birth. The rest of the record will be hidden.
You need to decide whether you wish to give consent to share your record or if you want to opt out. While we expect most people to share information to help health and social care professionals to improve the quality of your care, there may be times when you wish to remove consent or opt out. Information will be available in a consent options leaflet and on our DCR website.