Putting the summary care record in the context of your medical record

What is your health record?

From NHS choices
Your health records Your health records – NHS

What are the different types of health record including your summary care record?

From NHS choices
How to access your health records How to access your health records – NHS

Your summary care record

What is your summary care record, why can it help you and how do you opt out if you do not want it?

As the Care Quality Commission suggest about the Summary Care Record (SCR)

• “The SCR is an electronic summary of key health information sent from the patient’s GP record.
• As a minimum, each SCR contains details of a patient’s medication, allergies and adverse reactions. Information is updated in real time.
• Over 55million people in England have a SCR – more than 96% of the population.
• About 80,000 SCRs are being viewed each week by healthcare workers providing direct care to patients in urgent and emergency care settings – that’s over 4.3 million SCRs viewed per year.
• Viewing patient information in SCRs can significantly improve safety, quality and efficiency of care”
  Care Quality Commission

 As NHS Digital suggest
“Your Summary Care Record is a short summary of your GP medical records. It tells other health and care staff who care for you about the medicines you take and your allergies.” Summary Care Records (SCR) – information for patients – NHS Digital

From NHS Digital

• Summary Care Records (SCR) – information for patients Summary Care Records (SCR) – information for patients – NHS Digital
• Summary Care Records (SCR) Summary Care Records (SCR) – NHS Digital

From NHS England
Includes easy read photo story about adding additional information to your summary care record.
Summary Care Records NHS England » Summary Care Records

Opting out of your summary care record

As NHS Digital suggest
“The purpose of SCR is to improve the care that you receive, however, if you don’t want to have an SCR you have the option to opt out.”

From NHS Digital
Look down the page and you will find a heading “opting out”. There is a link to a SCR opt out form you can fill in and return to your GP practice.
Summary Care Records (SCR) – information for patients Summary Care Records (SCR) – information for patients – NHS Digital

Remember if you decide to opt out of your summary care record there are circumstances when you may not be in a position to tell a doctor about your medical and drug history (e.g., If you are seriously ill in A&E) or you may not recall important detail (e.g., if your medical record is large).  Your GP practice may not always be in a position to help out (e.g., in evening or at weekends).