London Care Record coming to south east London primary care

The London Care Record enables information to be viewed safely and securely through a patient’s record in the primary electronic patient records system used by GPs (EMIS) without the need for an additional login or patient search. 

King’s Health Partners recently hosted the London Care Record team for south east London as part of the Primary Care webinar series. During the session participants were able to see how the London Care Record is being used across different healthcare settings to improve patient care, see a live demo of the system, and ask any burning questions.

The recording of the webinar and the slides are available to view on the King’s Health Partners Learning Hub (free registration required or use your King’s Health Partners institution login).  

Elliann Fairbairn, Senior Project Manager, South East London Integrated Care Team, tells us more below.

The COVID-19 pandemic saw the UK healthcare sector pushed to new limits, under extreme resourcing pressures but it also saw existing innovations come into their own. Data sharing between clinicians involved in a person’s care became critical and shared record systems, like the London Care Record, were able to provide access to relevant information in real time.

Access to the London Care Record for primary care staff in south east London is being made more efficient and user-friendly with a direct portal in EMIS (the primary electronic patient records system used by GPs across London) without the need for an additional login. 

'An accelerated effort'

The COVID-19 pandemic shone a light on significant health inequalities across the capital where some patients with the highest need were falling through the gaps between healthcare providers. In line with the Government’s ambition, set out in their 2022 data strategy, there has been an accelerated effort to ensure healthcare providers have appropriate access to a complete view of a person’s health and social care record to provide more joined up care. 

In 2020, London Care Record began sharing acute and GP held information with health and social care professionals across the city. Information in the London Care Record is managed by a central Health Information Exchange (HIE), which is connected to a series of local Health Information Exchanges enabling data to be shared and accessed by health and care professionals across London (plus Milton Keynes, Hertfordshire and West Essex).

Local Care Record and Connect Care

South east London has a great history of integrating records systems with the Local Care Record (managed by Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust) and Connect Care (managed by Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust), which became known as the London Care Record for south east London. 

Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust also became the host for the Health Information Exchange in south east London and provide the technical support for the London Care Record in south east London - more details here.

Person-centred with the ability to customise 

The London Care Record creates a person-centred view of patient and service user information from health and care providers, in an easy-to-read format, listing most recent activity first. This view displays a patient’s recent visits, diagnoses, medications, investigations, clinical documents and more. This single digital view can also be customised by the end user, using a drag and drop function, reflecting user’s preferences and screen size.

The London Care Record enables information to be viewed safely and securely through a patient’s record in EMIS without the need for an additional login or patient search. Hundreds of GPs and more than 60 hospitals, community and social care services are using the London Care Record and work is ongoing to bring other health and social care providers online.

Find out which organisations are sharing via the London Care Record here.

Priorities 

One of the priorities of the South East London Integrated Care Systems Digital Strategy for 2021-2025 is to be exclusively using the London Care Record, and by January 2023 all GPs in south east London will have access to it directly in EMIS. 

All practice managers in Bromley, Lambeth, and Southwark will be contacted with instructions to activate the London Care Record portal. Activation takes less than 30 minutes and support is on hand to walk through the steps.

If your practice has been activated you’ll be able to find a direct link to the London Care Record, whilst in EMIS patient’s consultation view. There is a new option for ‘Portal Cerner New HI’ in the external views menu; this is the name for the London Care Record in EMIS.

With thanks to the practices who took part in the pilot to improve the rollout of the London Care Record. 

For more information about the London Care Record for south east London, click here.

You can also find further information and useful videos for users on our Youtube channel, here.