SCR data accreditation 'to be dropped'

Tags: Data quality GP Information Governance SCR Summary Care Record

13 Oct 2009

NHS Connecting for Health looks likely to drop the requirement for GP practice data to be accredited before Summary Care Records are created and uploaded to the Spine.

Practices are currently required to have completed component two of the IM&T directed enhanced service on data accreditation or a local equivalent before data is uploaded.

However, Dr Gillian Braunold, clinical director for the SCR, told a PRIMIS+ conference last month that it was likely that practices would no longer need to go through a formal data accreditation process.

Instead practices will only need to have primary care trust approval to be paper light.

Until now, practices have had to be approved as paper light and then go on to complete a data accreditation assessment. This included a quantative analysis of the practice data by data quality organisation PRIMIS+ and a visit from a trained assessor.

In answer to a question, Dr Braunold told the conference that in order not to hold up the roll out of the SCR practices would need paper light accreditation for medication but not formal data accreditation such as the IM&T DES or an IM&T local enhanced service.

Earlier this year, Dr Braunold said primary care trusts would need to offer local incentive schemes for data accreditation to support the roll-out of the SCR following the ending of the IM&T DES.

She said CfH was also talking to the Department of Health to incorporate national standards for data quality and information governance into the GP contract as part of the review of the contract for 2010.

However, since then any changes to GPs’ contract for 2010 have been put on hold as part of the deal agreed with the profession for implementation of the swine flu vaccination programme.

A spokesperson for the Department of Health told EHI Primary Care: “We are working with the NHS to clarify and re-state the requirements for data quality for the Summary Care Record programme following the end of the IM&T DES earlier this year.”

Fiona Barr

PCTs to offer local incentive schemes for data accreditation (02 Mar 2009) (1)
Data accreditation completed for 800 practices (01 Jul 2008)
GP contract to continue IT DES payments (08 Apr 2008) (3)

Reader's Comments

Don't forget...

13 Oct 09 17:10

Let us not forget that a patients life could depend on the quality of information / data in the SCR.

Is the individual GP responsible for the data quality or the PCT or CfH or the BMA?

The lawyers will need to know.

Excellent

13 Oct 09 18:10

Fabulous, quality is everything, safety is paramount, but we mustn't let little things like that hold up the rollout of the SCR.........

The SCR, if carefully and tightly managed and professionaly supervised has the POTENTIAL to be usefull but forget all that and just press on. Gongs all round! Paul C

Hippocratic Oath - application to information

13 Oct 09 22:10

Notwithstanding European Directives, surely the Hippocratic Oath which requires a doctor to 'do no harm' could be invoked to refuse to utilise, as clinical decision support, a merged record that had questionable contents or even to be reluctant to carry out a process (the upload) where the resultant deliverable was going to give cause for concern regarding patient safety?? I would love to see the business case which demonstrates that the suggested plan is not a retrograde step.

How many paperlite practices have formal PCT approval?

maryhawking@tigers.demon.co.uk

14 Oct 09 07:10

The legislation allowing GP practices to hold records electronically rather than on "forms provided by the Secretary of State for Health" was introduced in, IIRC, 2000 to legitimise the then existing situation: many practices were already paperlite regardless of the regulations! The terms were that the practice had to conform to Good Practice Guidelines for GP EPRs and get approval from the Health Authority. My practice obtained this, and since then has - I think - been re-approved in 2009 for 3 years by the PCT on gaining data accreditation under the DES. I don't know of any formal standards or processes other than the IM&T DES for granting paperlite status as opposed to data accreditation, so not clear why it is thought that this exists.

In addition, one of the problems originally was a lack of intermediate steps between paper and paperlite status: I certainly don't recall any separate accreditation of medication!

Presumably only medication would be uploaded if this partial approval was available?

Election Deliverable

14 Oct 09 09:10

>>Let us not forget that a patients life could depend on the quality of information / data in the SCR<<

Let us not forget that careers could depend on a minister being able to state that "NPfIT has successfully delivered n million electronic patient records" : never mind the data quality.

One can take consolation in the fact that (like Electronic Transfer of Prescriptions Release 1) most SCRs will never be seen again.