The London Care Record is expanding

With the progress of data sharing across London and beyond, the system formerly known as Connect Care is being expanded and renamed as the London Care Record.

Connect Care was linked to and built on the objectives of King’s Health Partners Local Care Record, which was originally set up to link the electronic patient record systems at Guy’s and St Thomas’, King’s College Hospital, and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trusts with Lambeth and Southwark social care and community services, plus the vast majority of GP practices in Southwark, Lambeth and Bromley.

In March 2018, the Local Care Record was first linked with Connect Care, another type of patient shared care information system. The joining of two previously separate systems offered 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 across London under a single care record that also includes other vital information such as COVID-19 test results for patients.

The expanded London Care Record helps doctors, nurses, and other health and social care professionals to make better and safer decisions. It allows important information about patients to be shared across various organisations involved in a person’s care, so that everyone has all the information they need to make informed choices.

Once fully rolled out, the London Care Record will include sharing of patient data from:

• GP practices;
• Acute services;
• Community services;
• Out of hours;
• Social care services; and,
• other Mental health trusts.

Watch this video for more information:

What is the London Care Record?

With safer, better connected and more personalised care using the London care record, healthcare professionals can:

• reduce the need for patients to repeat their details to all the professionals involved in care;
• avoid repeat testing, investigations and referring you unnecessarily to services;
• reduce unnecessary and unplanned admissions or visits to hospitals; and,
• prescribe medicines safely and accurately.

The timely sharing of information helps to make your care better and safer and can save lives. However, if patients do not want to share their information they can request to express their individual rights to stop sharing their information by initially submitting the form found on the below LGT webpage. If patients previously requested their information not be shared in “Connect Care”, this is still honoured by the London Care Record.

To learn more about the London Care Record, visit the Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust website here.