Bolton Primary Care Trust - the first in England to test the
summary care record as part of the
NHS's
National Programme for IT [NPfIT] - has reported "excellent
progress", though the scheme has met some strong local
resistance.
The summary care record is a database of basic medical
information run on the
national data "spine", which is supplied by BT. It will include
information - initially allergies and medications - which could be
useful to doctors who are treating patients unexpectedly or out of
hours.
Some GPs want a reliable and well-stocked database of patient
information to be running as soon as possible. Others refuse to
allow summary data on their patients to be uploaded to the spine,
fearing that it will not remain confidential.
The Bolton trust board was told this month that "despite some
delays outside of our control, excellent progress is being made as
the Primary Care Trust has already uploaded summary patient records
for 48,000 patients in Bolton and is soon to go live with access to
the summary care record in the out-of-hours service and the Primary
Care Trust's walk-in centre".
The board was also told that "over 50% of practices have
indicated their willingness to be involved in the summary care
record project and during 2008 we will continue to work and engage
with practices in order to maximise the number of patients in
Bolton who have a summary care record."
But staff at the trust also concede that the project has
"attracted a degree of controversy across GPs in Bolton, with some
wishing to be involved and others not at this stage".
The Local Medical Committee has balloted 169 GPs in the Bolton
area on whether they want to proceed with the summary care record.
Only 20 were in favour of the scheme, though about 70 did not
respond to the question. Of the 98 who responded, 67 did not want
to proceed.