Health committee reports on e-records

The Parliamentary Health Select Committee today published its sixth report on the National Health Service's (NHS) electronic patient record (EPR) programme, criticising communication and security processes as well as the progress of local implementation.

While it concluded that EPR systems are vital for the future of healthcare in England it said the delivery of the NHS Care Records Service (NCRS) has been hampered by "unclear communication and a worrying lack of progress on implementing local systems."

It said NCRS has the potential to bring huge benefits to patients, giving them greater control over their own healthcare and pointed to some success achieved to date. But it also pointed to delivery of some parts of the project that have been delayed by up to two years.

The committee called for a more localised approach by the NHS IT programme management body Connecting for Health, which is responsible for EPR systems, to speed up the implementation of the programme.

The report also called into question the security of the new system, saying arrangements for creating and adding information to the national Summary Care Record, which will contain basic health information, have been poorly communicated to patients and clinicians.

The Health Committee chairman, Kevin Barron MP, said in a statement: "Whilst the Government is getting the framework in place, they still have some way to go before patients and the profession can see tangible benefits of the new system."

The Liberal Democrats' Health spokesperson, Sandra Gidley MP said the EPR project was suffering from a lack of consistent direction and the report's findings would not help improve the confidence in the system.

"There is still a real risk of serious breaches of patient confidentiality," she said. "Unfortunately the committee received no assurances that patient details in projects of this magnitude could be kept completely safe."

Delays to the delivery of local Detailed Care Record systems, which will share a wide range of health information between local providers, also met with heavy criticism. It said these systems are the 'holy grail' for the EPR programme but, according to the report, it is not clear when they will be widely available.

The committee also expressed concern that iSoft's Lorenzo patient record system, which is soon to begin deployment in hospitals across the North and the Midlands, will not be trialled until at least 2008, leaving organisations relying on "increasingly outdated systems" to support patient care.

It said such delays have caused local clinicians and managers to lose confidence in the programme, adding that the Government must communicate more clearly with patients about its plans for new EPR programmes, including a timetable for the completion of Detailed Care Record systems and a final deadline for the successful installation of the Lorenzo system.

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