GPs to get easier access to Yorkshire and Humber Care Record

The first GP practice has gone live with an EMIS functionality which allows easier access to the Yorkshire and Humber Care Record.

Bridge Street Practice in North Lincolnshire added the contextual launch functionality on 30 July 2024, which allows clinicians to access the shared care record, through the EMIS toolbar.

Prior to this, staff required a separate login to an external logon portal to access the record, which holds vital information from across care settings including hospitals, GP practices, and community services.

The additional functionality has been introduced through a collaboration between EMIS, Interweave and the Humber and North Yorkshire shared care record delivery team.

Dr Abdur-Rauff Mahroof, a GP at the Bridge Street practice, said that the surgery refers to a wide range of hospitals in Yorkshire and Humber “from Leeds, down to Sheffield and across to Hull”.

“Having access to a function that with a single click on EMIS, I can see the information held at the hospitals without having to sign into multiple different systems has been such a blessing,” he added.

There are around 20 practices using EMIS in Humber and North Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership, which access the shared care records.

Work has begun to roll out the context launch functionality to each of them, with Whitby Group Practice planned to go live next.

Delivery teams provide sessions to the GP practices to support the configuration of the toolbar before go live.

A press release from Humber Teaching NHS Foundation Trust, said: “By making access routes to regional shared care records as streamlined as ever, we are seeing more practice engagement and usage due to new functionalities such as electronic patient record context launching.

“Patient care continually remains the priority and by streamlining clinicians’ access to patient data the knock-on effect is that clinicians have more time to spend with their patients delivering the care they need whilst patients do not need to repeat their story across their care encounters.”

In January 2023, Saint Catherine’s Hospice in Scarborough become the first hospice to use the Yorkshire and Humber Shared Care Record. allowing staff to check patients’ history, allergies, medications and end-of-life care wishes.

Meanwhile, in August 2024, Humber Teaching NHS Foundation Trust announced that it has signed a three-year contract with Accurx for a patient communication platform to replace its paper-based processes with digital ways of operating.

The system went live on 1 June 2024 at the trust, which provides integrated healthcare services across Hull, the East Riding of Yorkshire, Whitby, Scarborough, and Ryedale.