PCTs left in SCR guidance limbo

Primary care trusts are waiting for guidance on what will qualify as an acceptable awareness campaign before Summary Care Records can be rolled out.

A total of 70 PCTs have been involved in the accelerated roll-out of the SCR and many are thought to be keen to go-ahead with the programme despite a current ban from the Department of Health on uploading records in these areas.

Dr Grant Ingrams, joint chair of the RCGP and BMA’s joint IT committee, told EHI Primary Care that PCTs will get guidance on the implications of the suspension, although events could be affected by the imminent election.

He added: “The election has meant things have been slower to organise and it may be affected by what happens in the next few days.”

Dr Ingrams said he understood there had been a misunderstanding among some PCTs that the suspension meant information campaigns should cease as well as uploads, when the ban applied only to the uploading of records.

He said the BMA would, however, prefer PCTs to wait until they had received guidance from the centre as to what might constitute an appropriate awareness campaign.

The BMA wants to see much higher profile campaigns with extensive use of local media to ensure patients are fully aware of the plan for SCRs before any uploads begin.

Neighbouring PCTs NHS East Sussex, Downs and Weald and NHS Hastings and Rother are among those currently running their awareness campaigns and thought to be keen to go ahead with the programme.

Dr Russell Brown, chairman of East Sussex Local Medical Committee, told EHI Primary Care that practices had received an email from the PCTs following the suspension.

He said: “It basically said they saw no reason to stop what they were doing at this point in time.”

Dr Brown said he felt the PCTs and GPs needed clear advice about what will happen next and said locally there was a wide spectrum of views about the SCR with some practices keen to go-ahead and others unwilling to get involved while “most people are somewhere in the middle.”

He added: “Most GPs in East Sussex think the concept is not an unsensible one, the angst is about the implementation. I think everyone should pause and await guidance from the centre.”

A spokesperson for the trusts told EHI Primary Care that the PCTs were awaiting further guidance “to assess the implications of the additional assurance process required where public information programmes have been brought forward.”

A spokesperson for the Department of Health declined to name the nine PCTs out of 70 who it said would be most affected by the ban as they were the trusts ready to upload records or to confirm whether additional guidance would be issued to PCTs.