The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 274 No 7336 p167
12 February 2005

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First primary care records held on national database

A GP practice has become the first in England to take a significant step towards developing the shared electronic patient care record.

Basic non-clinical information about the 8,500 patients at the Undercliffe Surgery in Batley, West Yorkshire, is now being held on the national database, or spine, which is a key component in the development of the NHS Care Record Service.

The information includes the patient’s name, NHS number and address but will eventually also cover clinical information.

The development is an important step forward in the Government’s multi-million pound National Programme for IT, which includes creating an electronic patient record that can be shared by pharmacists and other health and social care professionals.

This should be possible once all NHS and social care services are connected to the spine.