OneLondon, part of NHS England London and a collaborative of London’s five Integrated Care Systems and the London Ambulance Service, supported by NHS England (London region), the Greater London Authority and London’s three Academic Health Science Networks (AHSNs), is working hard to ensure that as many health and care staff as possible have access to the London Care Record.
The London Care Record enables health and care professionals involved in a patient’s care to see important details about their health, when and where they need them, and receive the information they need to improve the quality of care.
What is the London Care record?
The London Care Record provides a secure view of a patient’s health and care information.
It can show doctors, nurses and other care professionals:
- Any conditions the patient might have.
- Prescribed medications.
- Test results.
- Plans for their care.
Having a single, secure view of an individual’s health and care information helps speed up communication between health and care professionals across London and beyond, helping to improve the safety of care and save lives.
How did it come about?
OneLondon was created in May 2018 to improve the sharing of important health and social care data between services, transform services and improve care for the people of London.
Until recently, information could only be shared by certain health and care providers in their local area; with the London Care Record, which displays information from separate record systems all in one place, health and care providers involved in a patient’s care can now share their health and care information across London and the surrounding areas, allowing professionals to see information quickly and safely in order to treat and care for the patient and help provide them with the most timely and efficient treatment.
What are the aims?
The London Care Record, which provides a joined-up picture of a person’s health and care information over time and across organisations and areas within London, aims to make sure that every decision made by health and care professionals at the point of care or about a patient in their treatment pathway is informed by the best possible information that is available.
Furthermore, joining health and care services and making information easily accessible prevents the patient from repeating their story again and again and enables health and care staff to have one secure view of a patient’s relevant health and care information, helping doctors, nurses and other health and social care professionals directly involved in a patient’s care to make better, safer decisions.
Dr Liz Heitz, Consultant Community Geriatrician, said, ‘The GP data I can access now lets me see all of my patients’ allergies, medications, and other details; sometimes, our patients are a little confused about what they’re taking, and sometimes, there are so many medications in a home that you don’t know what’s new, what’s old, or what they’re supposed to be taking.
‘Now, I have all that data in one place and can get all this information quickly with a click of a button.’
What are the benefits?
The benefits of using the London Care Record include the following:
- Reduces the need for patients to repeat their story to all the professionals involved in their care.
- Enables health and care professionals to tailor care to patients’ needs.
- Facilitates faster decision-making.
- Helps to prescribe medicines safely and accurately.
- Avoids repeat testing, investigations and referring patients unnecessarily to services.
- Reduces unnecessary and unplanned admissions or visits to hospitals.
- Helps to make care better and safer and helps to save lives.
- Improves time efficiency.
Should the London Care Record be implemented elsewhere? If so, how should it be done?
The London Care Record is a local initiative that shares information between services in the London region. As part of this project, care homes will be able to access information held on the Shared Care Record.
We have seen through other initiatives, such as GP Connect, that access to data is vital to helping care providers keep people safe.
Whilst GP Connect is a national initiative, a Shared Care Record is localised. One key challenge faced when working on a local and/or regional level is that the work has to be repeated multiple times. Whilst this duplication of effort is far from ideal, the options faced are ‘do nothing’, wait until a national initiative becomes available or take the opportunities to join up health and care on a regional basis. So, at Person Centred Software, we have taken the decision to expand access to the Shared Care Records with other regions, such as the West Midlands, and will look to support other regions in the country. The hope is that the London Care Record will significantly improve and support journeys for citizens as they move between health and social care settings.
The partnership between Person Centred Software and OneLondon began in June 2022. OneLondon was looking to pilot access to the Shared Care Record for care homes directly from our Digital Care Planning System. Together we have embedded the London Care Record within our digital care solution, so the 28 pilot homes can see a wealth of detail about those in their care.
The London Care Record is a huge time saver for care homes. Care providers can now get pertinent information for their residents at a click of a button instead of calling multiple services to build up the full picture of a person’s history and needs. Furthermore, there are a number of different levels of access to the London Care Record to suit all requirements, from seeing everything about a person, which a registered manager would need, right down to just past and upcoming appointments, allowing admin staff to arrange travel needs.
The pilot with OneLondon has undoubtedly proved its efficacy with success stories such as being able to avoid taking a resident to A&E because they had all the information about the person to make the right decision at their fingertips, fast-tracking referrals and seeing all results of previous investigations, all of which have saved valuable time and avoided duplicating tests.
Given all these benefits and its fantastic reception, the concept of Shared Care Records would be invaluable across other NHS trusts and ICSs. We hope to see others follow in OneLondon’s footsteps.