Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care System (ICS), Coventry and Warwickshire ICS and Herefordshire and Worcestershire ICS, have joined to deliver shared care records using InterSystems HealthShare®.

The programme includes 365 GP practices, hospital trusts, mental health and community trusts, local authorities, an ambulance trust, hospices and a prison service.

The ICSs have locally agreed data sets that providers individually hold on citizens to be viewable, such as medications, allergies, emergency contacts and any safeguarding information. It builds on the region’s existing mental healthcare record blueprint ‘MERIT’, which integrates mental health diagnoses, treatments, risk assessment plans, care team and crisis intervention plans across five mental health trust systems.

Dr James Reed, Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist and Chief Clinical Information Officer at Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust, commented: “We are proud to have brought together such a vast number of health and social care organisations into one system. We have already connected with six local authorities, including city and borough councils, to integrate citizen records, and have expanded on the original organisations to include additional settings such as hospices and a prison.”

Cezar Sarbu, Head of Service – Area Social Work at Worcestershire County Council, added: “It’s difficult to overstate the benefits of having greater visibility into our citizens’ needs. Being able to access such crucial information in one place through a unified health and social care record will enhance our ability to deliver care in ways that are appropriate and timely.”

The organisations include 365 GP practices, University Hospitals Birmingham NHS FT, The Royal Orthopaedic Hospital NHS FT, Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS FT, Birmingham City Council, Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council, Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS FT, Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS FT, Forward Thinking Birmingham, Birmingham Children’s Trust, Marie Curie Hospice, St Giles Hospice, St Mary’s Hospice, John Taylor Hospice, George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust, South Warwickshire University NHS FT, University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust, Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust, Warwickshire County Council, Coventry City Council, Wye Valley NHS Trust, Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, Herefordshire and Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust, Herefordshire Council, West Midlands Ambulance Service University NHS FT, and HM Prison Birmingham.