Expectant mothers given access to health records at Royal Cornwall

Expectant mothers at Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust can now access their personal health records through a digital portal.

Building on the trusts maternity information system supplied by Wellbeing’s Euroking (formerly E3), the trust has added a fully customisable module that allows patients access to their own records.

The trust went live with the portal in July last year. In the first month, 123 bookings were taken and 15 personal health record (PHR) activations were made.

In the second month, 372 bookings were made along with 62 PHR activations.

The PHR aims to empower women to play an active role in their own care, the trust said, as well as providing them with information on the services available to them.

It builds on the NHS’s Better Births plan, first published in February 2016.

Angela Whittaker, matron for acute maternity services and project lead at Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust, said: “The Better Births initiative is all about giving expectant mothers a choice over their own care throughout pregnancy and beyond – and that means granting women access to information clearly, in real-time and from anywhere.

“By implementing PHR we have taken a powerful step in the right direction and will be able to help thousands of women across Cornwall to have a more empowered, informative and supportive pregnancy journey.”

Handheld notes are still retained for certain areas such as growth charts, pressure ulcer risk information and other parameters, but the combination of the Euroking platform and PHR has enabled a significant reduction in the amount of paper notes used across the trust.

The trust’s maternity information system, which was rolled out in late 2017, allows for an up-to-date and accurate version of a women’s full health record – including scan reports – to be available digitally in one place.

Graham Ridgway, chief executive at Wellbeing Software, said: “PHR helps women by granting them greater clarity and control over their own maternity records and birth plans, and clinicians, by enabling them to communicate and plan more clearly with those women.

“We’re delighted to be supporting Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust on their Better Births journey and are committed to working collaboratively with other maternity teams to ensure they have the technology and support they need to achieve this too.”