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RPS campaigns for read-write access to records

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RPS campaigns for read-write access to records

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society is running a campaign for pharmacists to have 'read and write' access to health records when consulting patients and dispensing medicines.

The RPS is calling for pharmacists to have secure, electronic access to a single up-to-date patient record to enable the delivery of safer, more effective, high quality care. The move would improve medicine use, keep patients and health professionals better informed and provide more holistic patient care, the Society says.

The NHS in England has already announced a programme to roll out Summary Care Record access to community pharmacies across England after pilots showed this level of access reduced unnecessary visits to the GP and avoidable medicine errors. The RPS wants to see a staged development of this initiative towards pharmacist read-write access to the single complete electronic health record for all patients which is currently in development across Great Britain.

Robust governance will ensure records are accessed by pharmacists together with other relevant health professionals only when there is a clinical need and only with the consent of the patient.

Focus groups held in Scotland by RPS revealed that patients support pharmacist access to full patient records where patients themselves choose, and explicitly consent to, who may access the information.

Chair of the RPS English Pharmacy Board, Sandra Gidley, says: "The RPS believes that patient care and medicine safety will be improved if pharmacists have 'read and write' access to patient records. This would also allow the NHS to maximise the value of the significant investment it makes in medicines."


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