18,000 GPs registered for care records

The number of NHS staff registered to eventually use the national NHS Care Records Service (NHS CRS), when it becomes available, has trebled in the past two months and by the beginning of August stood at 75,216.

According to figures obtained by E-Health Insider by the beginning of August there were 18,981 GPs registered to use NHS CRS, a huge leap up from the 3,500 registered by the end of June.

But only a tiny minority of those registered to use the NHS CRS system are yet able to do so. Many of the GP registrations are likely to have been driven by incentive payments offered by the DH to encourage adoption of Choose and Book.

To receive a capital payment equivalent to £6,000 per practice primary care trusts had to have 30 per cent of GPs registered for smartcards by the end of June.

The Connecting for Health figures only relate to the numbers who have been issued with a smartcard by local registration authorities to enable them to access systems on the NHS CRS, or national NHS ‘spine’, when they eventually become available.

The only components of the NHS CRS yet available on the spine are patient demographic details and mechanisms to authenticate and securely log-in staff. No clinical patient data is yet thought to be held on the spine. The spine also provides the mechanism for connecting to Choose and Book, the electronic booking system, and the systems for the Electronic Transfer of Prescriptions.

In response to questions from EHI Primary Care NHS Connecting for Health said that it was unable to give a figure for how many clinicians are yet using either the CRS or data spine services.

"This data is not currently available and is being incorporated into national spine reports which should be available in early 2006," said a spokesperson.

CfH also told EHI Primary Care that by the end of July there were a total of 134 NHS sites actively using one of the versions of Choose and Book being offered – the national system or the interim web-based and Indirectly Bookable Services. The spokesperson said that 2,395 Choose and Book appointments had been made so far.