Talks address whether patients may be able to register for Healthspace at pharmacies
Patients may in future be able to register at community pharmacies to use the NHS web service Healthspace. The service will provide secure online access for patients in England, allowing them to view their summary care record, book appointments and, potentially, order repeat prescriptions.
The issue was discussed earlier this month at the first meeting of the
Pan-Pharmacy NHS
IT Group, which includes pharmacy bodies and NHS Connecting
for Health, and was established to ensure engagement between the profession
and all relevant programmes within NHS CfH (PJ, 1 September, p223).
“The pharmacy network offers accessibility and a trusted location
[where] patients could sign up for access. Patients are likely to visit
a pharmacy
more often than a GP practice and this would support the profession’s
expanding role in managing patient care,” said the group in a joint
press release.
A rigorous registration process has already been developed for patients
in the care record early adopter areas who wish to access the site. The
Department of Health has proposed that pharmacists may in future support
this process by validating patient identity. “Further work will
be carried out to consider the practicality of this in more detail,” said
the group.
Access to NHSmail, the e-mail and directory service designed specifically
for NHS staff, was also discussed at the meeting.
The group heard that NHSmail will be piloted in two primary care trust
localities before national roll-out. National pharmacy bodies will be
able to feed into this process and will receive regular feedback on progress
with implementation, said the group.
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