GPs join attack on SCR roll-out

GP leaders have joined the attack on the roll-out of the Summary Care Record, calling for an immediate halt to the roll-out and an urgent discussion of the issues with the Department of Health and NHS Connecting for Health.

The BMA’s General Practitioner Committee, which represents all GPs in the UK, passed a unanimous motion saying that "the GPC deplores the recent fast roll-out of the SCR in England.

"We seek the halting of this roll-out and that the DH and CfH discuss these issues urgently with the profession.”

Dr Grant Ingrams, co-chair of the joint IT Committee of the BMA and RCGP, said the general feeling of the GPC was that the roll-out had been “a dog’s dinner."

He told EHI Primary Care: “It’s been pushed through without thinking through the consequences, there is a lot of misinformation out there and there are a lot of primary care trusts and certainly practices who are not really up to speed on the issues.”

The debate at the March meeting of the GPC follows a letter sent by the BMA to health minister Mike O’Brien almost two weeks ago, calling for the SCR roll-out to be suspended.

Dr Ingrams said CfH had spoken to the GPC before Christmas about extending the SCR to cover an entire strategic health authority, instead of launching campaigns PCT by PCT; partly because hospitals usually care for patients from more than one PCT so it seemed sensible to cover a wider area.

However, Dr Ingrams said that while the intention may have been to try such an approach with just one SHA, five had ending up joining the scheme, partly because central funding for Public Information Programmes was offered for those signing up to complete their PIPs by the end of March.

Dr Ingrams said the GPC was also still concerned about the consent model for the SCR and wanted the SCR roll-out halted until an independent evaluation by University College London is published next month.

He added: “It seems bizarre to start a wider roll-out when you haven’t had the results of the evaluation which is coming next month.”

The GPC argues that practices also need to be content with their local PIP and with the level and quality of training and information provided by their PCT and SHA. They also need to ensure that their data is fit for sharing before making a decision to proceed to upload to the SCR.

Reports published last week on a confidential draft of the final UCL evaluation suggest that data quality is variable in the uploads from GP records, with some errors and omissions on allergies, adverse events and medications.

Dr Ingrams said the BMA was in constant dialogue with CfH and the DH but was waiting to receive a response to its letter from the health minister.