Health Innovation Manchester has announced that over 60 Well Pharmacy sites plan to have access to the region’s shared care record.
By having access to the shared cared record, pharmacies across the Manchester region can view health and social care data, including “medication history, blood pressure records, lifestyle notes, and immunisation details to support flu and COVID-19 immunisation services”.
The project aims to support a reduction in telephone calls to primary care and supply access to patient information for pharmacies.
On the initiative, George Sandhu, deputy superintendent pharmacist, Well Pharmacy said: “Well Pharmacy’s roles in the community is continually evolving with our pharmacies now offering more and new services such as Pharmacy First and the Contraceptive Service and Hypertension Case Finding Service”. George added that it will “be the first chain of community pharmacies in Greater Manchester to request access.”
Last year NHS Greater Manchester launched its five-year plan to improve access to primary care services, with the GM Care record playing a key part of the plans.
Patient care records and EPRs wider trend
We recently reported on Shropshire Health and Wellbeing Board publishing an update on the Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin ICS digital strategy. It highlighted “key accomplishments” from the year including the rollout of an EPR. The report stated that “implementation of the shared care record has laid a critical foundation for data-sharing across the ICS, enabling clinicians and care providers to access real -time patient information and fostering collaborative care”.
In November, the Professional Record Standards Body laid out plans for a consultation with NHS England aimed at exploring how a patient’s characteristics are recorded in care records, with focus on ensuring that patient diversity is reflected, especially when used in clinical decision-making. The project was said to look at standardised data sharing across NHS systems, addressing “critical” gaps.
Earlier in the year, Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent ICB’s ‘Digital Vision 2024’ was announced, outlining the organisation’s digital roadmap, including the introduction of One Care Connected, a shared care record aiming to link NHS and local government organisations. Other focuses include levelling up access to EPR and reducing the number of EPR products in use across the system.
In August, Barry Frostick, CDIO at Mid and South Essex ICS, took to LinkedIn to announce the go-live of the ICS’s shared care record, highlighting the potential for the platform to “enable better connected care and safer treatment” for patients and residents. The aim was to bring together information from local health and care organisations, offering health professionals in the region “instant access” to important data.
