IT Statement of Intent

ELECTRONIC PATIENT RECORDS STATEMENT OF INTENT

New 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 Thatcham Medical Practice (TMP) stance with regards to these developments:

Referral Management

TMP will ensure the NHS number is included as the primary identifier in all NHS clinical correspondence issued by the practice.

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.

TMP currently offer the facility for booking, cancelling, amending, printing or viewing existing appointments online. We use Patient Access. This is a web-based application which has been developed to expand the services available to our patients. Access to this service is directly through the Patient Access website or our site at /practice-information/appointments/.

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.

TMP currently offer the on-line facility for ordering repeat prescriptions and viewing previous repeats that have been issued but are not available to order. We use Patient Services. Our patients can request issues of their existing repeat prescriptions via the internet. The prescription is then processed and made available for collection within 48 hours (2 working days, see
/practice-information/repeat-prescriptions/ for further 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.

The Summary Care Record is a copy of key information held in your GP record. It provides authorised healthcare staff with faster, secure access to essential information about you – when you need unplanned care or when your GP practice is closed.

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.
TMP is already live with SCR.

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’ on our 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.

TMP confirm that GP2GP transfers are already active and we send and receive patient records via this system. To find out more about ‘Why it’s needed’ or ‘How it works’, please use the following link http://systems.hscic.gov.uk/gp2gp.

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.
We are working with our system supplier and it is our intention to have this facility available to patients by 31st March 2015. For patients who already have access to Vision Online Services (VOS) – Online Appointments, this service will be seamless. If you do not have Online Appointment access, it is advisable to register so you can benefit from this service.