C+D can reveal that Cegedim Rx yesterday (March 26) became the first pharmacy technology provider to switch on the “access record” function on its clinical services platform – allowing pharmacists to see patients’ GP record data on medications, investigations and observations.
“Access record allows pharmacies access to the patient’s GP record at the point they’re delivering any one of [the NHS] clinical services available via pharmacy,” a spokesperson yesterday told C+D.
Read more: GPs ordered to switch on GP Connect by new contract
It is available for “all patients” undertaking any of the NHS pharmacy clinical services, including Pharmacy First, the new medicines service (NMS), hypertension and contraception services, they said.
The spokesperson added that pharmacists will “be able to see information in the patient record linked to three areas”.
These areas are medications, investigations such as blood test results and observations such as blood pressure, weight, height, body mass index (BMI) and smoking status, they explained.
Read more: BREAKING: Pharmacists able to update GP records from today
“Assured GP IT suppliers have switched on the functionality automatically or have provided guidance about how GP practices can manually activate it,” the company added.
It remains unclear whether GPs will be able to turn off this function or deny pharmacies access to this information.
“A significant step forward”
Cegedim Rx product director Leanne Hackett said that the company is “delighted…to be the first community pharmacy IT supplier” to switch on access record functionality.
“GP Connect access record will make a patient’s relevant medical information available to pharmacy” and “without question help to improve patient care and outcomes”, she added.
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“It really can’t be overstated just how important it is for community pharmacy to have access to relevant patient medical information,” Hackett said.
“It’s a significant step forward, not just in delivering improved interoperability but also in highlighting the vital role community pharmacy plays in the delivery of NHS healthcare,” she added.
Finally connected?
The update comes after the tech company became the first IT provider to allow pharmacists to update GP records with Pharmacy First consultation data in April.
But in June, practices turned off the GP Connect functionality en masse after the British Medical Association (BMA) warned that the update record function “could potentially further enable workload and subtle responsibility transfer from an external provider directly to the GP in the future”.
Read more: GPs switch off update patient record function in new Pharmacy First IT twist
At the time, Community Pharmacy England (CPE) director of NHS services Alastair Buxton deemed the move “counterintuitive”.
But last month, NHS England (NHSE) set out that GP practices will be “required to ensure the functionality in GP Connect is enabled” by October 1 as part of the new GP contract.
Meanwhile in September, Cegedim rolled out the NHS Booking and Referral Standard (BaRS), which allows GP Pharmacy First referrals to be delivered into a pharmacy’s clinical services system “in just the same way as those from NHS 111”.
