Members of the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council (BCP) Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) team are making good use of the Dorset Care Record in their daily work.
Joss Bowen, who works in business support of out of BCP’s St Paul’s office, has been using the DCR since it went live in spring 2018: “Having the DCR has been so useful – we can now find out so much more. We need to constantly plan for people who are leaving hospital and now it’s so much easier as we have the information available.
“It’s also useful for us as part of our checks to see if people have been admitted into hospital and where they are. Having information at our finger tips is really beneficial.”
Michelle Pattenden, DoLS social worker care home/community hospital best interest assessor, said she has been using the DCR for the past four months. “I find it useful as it means we are no longer having to phone the hospital switchboard to see if patients have moved wards or are still in hospital. We aren’t always told if someone has been discharged. We need to get hold of this information to ascertain the degree of urgency regarding referral.
“The information on the DCR provides a more holistic approach – we can see what medication someone is one or what tests they are having. It is used every day by our assessor team.
“Moving forward, it will be useful when Rio mental health records come on stream as we will be able to know if someone has been detained in a unit and when they’ve been discharged,” she added.
The Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards provides a legal framework to ensure that people’s lives aren’t overly restricted and that any decisions about the way they are cared for, and where they are cared for are a proportionate response to the risk of them coming to harm and are in their best interests.