Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust has announced it’s set to go live with its patient portal, Patients Know Best, on 9 October.
Initially, patients will be able to access their health records through the portal, including their personal information and upcoming hospital appointments. Then, over the months ahead, the portal will be expanded to allow access to information leaflets, hospital letters, scan results and blood tests. The trust added that patients can sign up through the NHS app to be ready for when the portal goes live, and then can access their records either via the NHS app or Patients Know Best directly.
To support the go-live, the trust has published a frequently asked questions webpage, answering: Will this affect my care? Does this mean I won’t receive any letters or texts from my hospital? Is the system secure? Can I ask someone else to register on my behalf? What if I don’t have an NHS login?
Last week, the trust announced plans to introduce an electronic patient record, with an aim to go live in 2025. As one of the last trusts in London to move to an EPR, the programme aims to see an end to the trust’s “unhealthy reliance on paper”, which currently sees 25 million pieces of A4 generated every year.
In a £44 million investment, the trust will be introducing the same system that is in use at Barts Health. In particular, the trust’s announcement highlights the benefits which will arise from closer collaboration with Barts Health, and that “the records of someone visiting any one of the seven hospitals run by BHRUT and Barts Health will be accessible to the clinical team”.
In May, we spoke with digital leaders to hear their views, learnings and advice on patient portals.
In November, we’re hosting a panel discussion on patient portals, if you would like to join the panel and share your work, please email press@htn.co.uk.
