Strict controls on electronic health records promised
Patients will eventually have access to their records from any internet
point |
Patients’ anxieties about the confidentiality of their health records are addressed in a “guarantee” published by the Department of Health this week. It outlines the controls that will be introduced when the new electronic databases are created as part of Connecting
for Health, the national programme for IT.
The “NHS care record guarantee” (PDF 380K) sets out 12 promises
to patients describing who will be able to access their health records
and
how this
will be policed.
The NHS promises that under the new system health professionals will
only have access to the information they need to play their part in the
health care of the patient. However, it will not become clear how much
access pharmacists will have to the records until further consultation
has taken place.
Harry Cayton, chairman of the Care Record Development Board (CRDB), told
The Journal that community pharmacists do not need to see the whole clinical
record to play their part in the care of the patient, although hospital
pharmacists may have broader access. “If pharmacists read what
the guarantee says about the “needs to know” basis they will
see how it applies to them,” he added.
The guarantee says that patients will be able to view their own records
and point out any mistakes. Patients will also eventually have secure,
24-hour access to their records via the internet. The document also confirms
that patients will have a level of choice about what information about
them is recorded or shared, and that an audit trail will be recorded
of who has been accessing the information.
The guarantee was designed after research conducted by the NHS Information
Authority and the Consumers’ Association showed that the public
would feel more reassured about who has access to their records if there
was a published sharing agreement.
The CRDB has pledged to review the information in six months time since
much of the work on what the care records will contain is still under
way. |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal
Acrobat
Reader