Welcome to our latest stakeholder update about progress of the Dorset Care record and our new patient portal, myDCR.
1 Additional information in our shared care record
Adult alerts from Dorset Council are being added shortly to the Dorset Care Record. The new feed will allow GPs to know whether adult social care is involved with a specific patient and in what circumstance, based upon the alert that is now available in the system. Sharing this type of information can also enable early interventions to prevent the escalation of risk, coordinate effective and efficient response across our health and social care partnership and prevent abuse and harm that may increase the need for care and support.
We have also added a number of new document types to DCR from Dorchester County Hospital (DCH) – these include documents from Maternity, Cancer MDT and very recently pre-op assessments.
2 Ringwood medical practice supplying patient information
Clinicians and social care staff can now access GP data though our shared care record from the Ringwood Medical Practice in Hampshire. The GP practice, part of the Avon Valley Primary Care Network, is the first cross-border surgery to provide this information. To find out more about cross-border work with GP practices go to Ringwood Medical Practice supplies patient information to the Dorset Care Record – Dorset Care Record (dorsetcouncil.gov.uk)
We are working with other non-Dorset GP practices and hope to have more information soon.
3 Welcoming new organisations to the Dorset Care Record partnership
We’ve seen a number of new organisations that carry out specific work for partners in Dorset being given access to the DCR.
These include Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership staff working with armed services veterans and people with alcohol and drug dependencies; Help and Care, who are leading on the new Dorset HealthCare dementia pathway service and Age UK. To find out more about our work with new partners and for details of digital starter-pack go to – Digital starter-pack available for potential new health and care users – Dorset Care Record (dorsetcouncil.gov.uk)
4 Growing the DCR
Numbers of records being accessed by health and social care records across our Partnership continue to grow with nearly 86,000 records accessed during October – this is a 25,000-record rise in monthly patient accesses since the turn of the year. We also have more than 5,000 trained users – a jump of more than 1,500 since January.
5 myDCR – our patient portal
Work has been continuing with our patient portal, myDCR. We have successfully completed a number of pilots with patients attending the Diabetes and Rheumatology clinics at DCH and the Rheumatology and Motor Neuron Disease clinics at UHD, and we are currently running a pilot for Breast Cancer patients with DCH. We are reviewing and analysing the results of the initial pilots before finalising our plans for the potential wider rollout of the platform. To see our myDCR video – MyDCR Extended Video – YouTube
6 Catch up with our online videos
Since our last stakeholder update, we’ve held a number of webinars covering a range of subjects including:
- The national perspective by NHS England Senior programme lead for shared care records John Farenden – DCR Webinar with John Farenden Shared Care Records: Clare, Ellie, Jane and Branwen 20220525 100 – YouTube
- Launching a shared care record – the Derbyshire experience – DCR Webinar: The Derbyshire Experience: Launching a shared care record 20220720 100143 – YouTube
- Making the right information available to the right professional at the right time – the Somerset shared care journey – Webinar SIDeR The Somerset Shared Care Record 20220928 140512 Meeting Recording – YouTube
7 Briefing our Chief Executive – Dorset Council’s Matt Prosser
In the summer, we hosted Dorset Council’s Chief Executive Matt Prosser on developments of our shared care record and pilot patient record, myDCR. Matt was given a demonstration of the DCR in the test environment with a focus on benefits for council employees. The team briefed him on the progress of the myDCR patient portal pilots and there was a general discussion on the role of our sister organisation, Wessex Care Records and their progress on interoperability between DCR and the Hampshire care record, CHIE, and the current state of play around the One Medications Record.
Matt kindly wrote a think piece for us – The Dorset Care Record: A view from Dorset Council’s Chief Executive Matt Prosser – Dorset Care Record
8 See what our health and social care professionals think of the DCR
In our latest series of case studies, we caught up with
- University Hospitals Dorset Medicines Management Technician Katy George – Utilising the Dorset Care Record – a perspective from medicines management – Dorset Care Record (dorsetcouncil.gov.uk)
- Bournemouth Christchurch and Poole Council occupational therapist Kevin Barlow – Occupational Therapist finds Dorset Care Record an increasingly useful resource – Dorset Care Record (dorsetcouncil.gov.uk)
- Help and Care dementia triage coordinator Julie Nicklin – Dorset Care Record provides enhanced customer service for Dorset’s revised dementia care pathway – Dorset Care Record (dorsetcouncil.gov.uk)
- The Transfer of Care Hub for Dorset Single Point of Access team – How our shared record is helping teams involved with hospital discharges – Dorset Care Record (dorsetcouncil.gov.uk)
9 News in Brief
- We were delighted to take part in Dorset Council’s third Festival of the Future Health and Social Care Day in Bridport when our project managers Jodie Crowfoot and Theresa Barton spoke about our progress of the DCR and myDCR. You can catch the video on our Linkedin page – #FutureFest22 – Day 4: Bridport – YouTube
- Our work with community pharmacies received a plug with a story at the end of August in the trade publication Pharmaceutical Journal – Pharmacies and the Dorset Care Record – Dorset Care Record (dorsetcouncil.gov.uk)
- We’ve been working with our sister organisation Wessex Care Records on their survey of public understanding of, and attitudes towards, sharing patient information, with the results being used to develop a plan for future citizen communications and engagement on information sharing. You can read more in Tim Smith’s blog – Sharing patient information across Wessex – Dorset Care Record (dorsetcouncil.gov.uk)
- Our communications lead Tony McDougal and project manager Jodie Crowfoot gave talk to the NHS Dorset mid-Dorset Patient Participation Group in the summer – DCR talk to the mid-Dorset Patient Participation Group – Dorset Care Record (dorsetcouncil.gov.uk)
- We were delighted, along with Manchester, to be chosen to present an update on the DCR to the shared care record national communications and engagement group.
10 And finally – Highly Commended and Runners-up in the Efficiency Savings of the Year Award
Delivery of efficiency savings along with benefits in patient experience, care and safety led the DCR to be highly commended in the Health Tech Efficiency Savings of the Year award. To read more – Dorset Care Record highly commended in HTN Efficiency Savings award – Dorset Care Record (dorsetcouncil.gov.uk)
- If you’d like either a virtual or a face-to-face update from the team, do contact us at dorsetcarerecord@dorsetcouncil.gov.uk
Ends