Fifth of GPs can transfer records electronically

About a fifth of GPs now have the ability to do electronic record transfers, the NHS' IT group has announced.

NHS Connecting for Health's (CfH) GP2GP software has been rolled out to over 2,000 practices, and 25,000 record transfers have been completed - a success for the often criticised National Programme for IT (NPfIT).

The GP2GP system allows patients' health records to be transferred electronically between practices, allowing medical history to be moved when the patient registers at a new practice. Previously, paper documents had to be shipped and re-entered into computer systems - which sometimes took months.

"This is a major advance on the paper-based process," said Dr Agnelo Fernandes, a GP in Croydon." It's very refreshing to have medical information available for patients when they present for the first time."

CfH said the system will also save time and stress for larger organisations, such as hospitals and universities, which have to cope with hundreds of patient transfers.

Christine Franklin, a practice manager at the University Health Service in Sheffield, said: "We can get 5000 new students registering here in a single week at the start of the academic year, with a further 1000 then dribbling in over the subsequent 12 months... Now, where patients come to us from other practices which are using GP2GP, we are receiving their electronic health records literally within minutes."

She added: "GP2GP is starting to save us a lot of time on the administrative front... We are able to pace our work a lot better within the university health service."

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