The NPA has published a position paper today demonstrating the case for community pharmacists to have access to electronic NHS Care Records.
Community pharmacists should have read and write access to NHS Care Records for a number of reasons:
1. To benefit patients
2. To carry out their responsibilities under the new contract
3. To benefit other care professionals
4. To prevent harm to patients
5. To benefit pharmacists themselves
Points 1, to 3 are considered in a section of the paper which looks at pharmacist responsibilities under their new contract. The contract, which was effective from April 2005, formalises a wide range of roles for community pharmacists, beyond dispensing, at the front line of patient care. The NPA believes access to NHS Care Records is a pre-requisite for compliance – from Essential Service 1 (Dispensing), through the Advanced Service of Medicines Use Review and Prescription Intervention Service, to Enhanced Services such as prescribing and at most points in between.
Point 4 – preventing harm to patients, considers the vital community pharmacist role of shielding patients from medication errors by intervening with the prescriber on their behalf and how much more effective that would be with full access to the NHS Care Record.
Point 5 – the benefits to pharmacists themselves is explored in terms of pharmacists at last playing their part in the new integrated primary healthcare team.
The NPA recognises that the integrated care record is not without controversy and tackles potential objections to pharmacist access. The paper explores the necessity of pharmacist access to patient records beyond their own medication records, the issue of patient confidentiality and the cost of including community pharmacists in the project. These points are answered by the fact that patients are not registered exclusively with one pharmacy, by the clinical examples provided in the pharmacists’ responsibilities under the new contract, by pharmacists’ role in preventing medication errors; an increased emphasis on all aspects of patient confidentiality as the new contract is implemented; and the connection of community pharmacy systems to N3.
John D’Arcy, the NPA’s Chief Executive, says: “For pharmacists to truly become part of the primary health care team, which revolves very much around the patient, full access to a patient’s NHS Care Record is not a “want”, but a “need” and vital for the Government’s vision of integrated health care by 2010. Pharmacists see access to the NHS Care Record as full membership of an integrated primary care team.”
He adds “Its time for the profession to make the case for access, to patients and the public as well as other health professionals and government. Electronic care record pilots are due to start this year, we can’t afford to be left behind”
Colette McCreedy, NPA Director of Practice comments:
“An important objective of this position paper is to stimulate debate. We have started to engage with patient groups to understand better their opinions and have already had some interesting feedback. For instance, privacy in community pharmacy is seen as an issue, as is the possibility of access to the record by staff other than the pharmacist. It is important to address these concerns to get public support for community pharmacist access to the integrated care record”
ENDS
