The “new and improved” successor to the Summary Care Record application is launching in the form of the National Care Records Service (NCRS), designed to provide secure access to national patient information in order to support decision making and healthcare outcomes.
The NCRS is available for all authorised health and care professionals and provides access to a number of national NHS Digital services, said to complement local and regional shared care records by providing access to information across regional boundaries. At present, the information that users can access includes over 60 million Summary Care Records and 450,000 care plans via the National Record Locator, in addition to accessing information from the Personal Demographics Service and the Child Protection Information Sharing Service.
In March 2023, the service will expand to include Female Genital Mutilation information sharing, Birth Notification Application and Overseas Visitors and Migrants.
The NCRS can be accessed using the internet or launched from a electronic patient record system and is designed for mobile use as well as desktop to enable staff to access it in different settings such as clinical environments, ambulances and care homes. Security options including biometrics and multi-factor authentication are available.
The service is being piloted in the Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust; Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust; Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust; East London NHS Foundation Trust; North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust; East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust; Southern Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust; East Anglia Air Ambulance Service Trust; community pharmacy chain Welricks; London Ambulance Service; and Kent County Council care homes.
The pilot taking place in the care homes aims to “understand what benefits social care providers will gain for their patients by being able to access national patient records digitally”, specifically without having to rely on other NHS organisations sharing records or care planning information.
