Twenty public sector bodies in the West Country aim to
start implementing a system to share social care records
electronically this summer.
More than 10,000 staff across the 20 organisations will have
access to the records of anyone with an assessment history living
in Devon or Cornwall.
IBM and software supplier Esprit were awarded preferred bidder
status for the contract in March. The deal is expected to be signed
in August.
IBM’s Tivoli Access Manager will provide single sign-on for
social workers. Interfaces to 20 separate underlying systems will
be via an IBM Websphere application server and a SQL Server
database.
“The system needs the consent of the individual. They can give
two different levels of consent: a basic level of information and
then further information,” said Keri Storey, the deputy director of
health and social care for Devon County Council and Exeter Primary
Care Trust.
The organisations involved in the scheme are the 10 NHS primary
care trusts covering Devon and Cornwall, Devon’s three social
services authorities and Cornwall’s seven authorities.
“We have looked at time saving and reductions in admissions to
hospital. We think there will be a 15 minutes time saving per
assessment [from data sharing],” said Devon County Council’s
programme manager for the single assessment process Heather
Eardley.