EMIS SCR compliant by April

EMIS is expected to become compliant with the Summary Care Record by the end of April, freeing the way for the full roll-out of the SCR in England.

Health minister Ben Bradshaw told MPs in a Parliamentary written answer that so far three GP systems have successfully demonstrated compatibility and have been used in the creation of SCRs in the early adopter primary care trusts.

He added: “It is anticipated that a fourth supplier will have achieved compatibility by April 2009. These four suppliers represent 95% of all GP care systems in use throughout England. Other suppliers are making progress towards compatibility, but no firm timelines exist for their systems to achieve compatibility at this stage.”

Sean Riddell, managing director of EMIS, confirmed to EHI Primary Care that he expected EMIS’ software to be complaint by April.

Riddell said development work was complete and the software was now going through the NHS Connecting for Health accreditation process.

Last month, Richard Corbridge, implementation manager for the SCR, told EHI Primary Care that iSoft had achieved approval for national roll-out, TPP was predicted to be approved very shortly, and INPS was testing a new version of its SCR software that was likely to go into its first practices in April.

Bradshaw also told MPs that, as of 27 January, 34 practices from four PCTs were live with the SCR. In Bolton 91,146 SCRs have been created and in Bury 100,183. The three practices live with the SCR in South Birmingham have created 21,001 SCRs and in Bradford, one practice is live with 19,173 records.

There are seven other NHS organisations currently able to access the SCR, covering out-of-hours services, a walk-in centre and A&E departments in Bury and Bolton, together with a mental health trust.

The health minister said strategic health authorities will agree the timeline for implementing the SCR with PCTs, based on a two year timescale for full deployment from the date on which all GP systems in the PCT area are compliant with the SCR.