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10 February 2021
Our Local Care Record enables GPs and healthcare professionals to instantly see patient information held in other healthcare settings, such as hospitals and adult social care.
The Local Care Record connects the electronic patient record systems at Guy’s and St Thomas’, King’s College Hospital and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trusts, Lambeth and Southwark social care and community services with the vast majority of GP practices in Southwark, Lambeth and Bromley. Due to COVID-19, the Local Care Record has broadened its reach and is now connecting patient record systems with seven London acute trusts and NHS 111 via access to Connect Care.
The Local Care Record enables care professionals to view a patients’ medications, allergies, previous treatments, test results and any other relevant care information, all at the touch of a button. This is helping to improve the care people receive by making the sharing of information faster, safer and more secure. The system helps to reduce delays to treatment by removing the need for other health and social care services to send over relevant records manually. This is especially useful outside working hours and in emergencies when staff need to know critical information quickly.
In March 2018 the Local Care Record was first linked with Connect Care, another type of patient shared care information system, joining two previously separate systems, to offer a secure way of sharing information electronically between local staff involved in patient care.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been an accelerated effort to join up even more services and include other vital information such as COVID-19 test results for patients. The Connect Care Portal can be accessed via the Local Care Record system, allowing staff to directly access relevant care information from hospitals and primary care providers in other parts of London. For example, a social worker in south east London would now be able to access the Connect Care Portal to check a service user’s referrals and COVID-19 results.
Extending the Connect Care Portal to include information from other areas in London, which can be accessed from the Local Care Record, due to COVID-19 is a significant improvement. This helps colleagues to prepare for virtual patient reviews and triage referrals to ensure patients are seen by the right team at the right time. It also helps those with responsibility for arranging care packages, and those working in the Emergency Department and Critical Care. Capitalising on this success, plans are now underway to incorporate more parts of London so that the record becomes the London Care Record.
Healthcare professionals commented on how the portal has helped.
An NHS 111 Integrated Urgent Care GP said:
Connect Care really helped me to quickly understand current medications and medical history when dealing with a patient for the first time. It’s especially useful when patients cannot remember.
A social worker from older people and disabilities service said:
It was really helpful to check referrals are made promptly by care homes and to have access to COVID-19 results.
