Health and social care teams partners across Devon are set to benefit from further developments in the Devon and Cornwall Care Record (DCCR) programme.
The new system, which launched in August 2022, aims to transform the way information is shared among health and care organisations to benefit local patients by giving authorised health and care staff the ability to see details held by a wide range of providers across Devon, Cornwall and the Isle of Scilly in a single record.
In coming weeks, admission, discharge and transfer information from Derriford Hospital’s Emergency Department (ED) will also be introduced to the system – as well as data from the Devon hospices.
The programme team continues to work with GP practices, and there are now 129 practices signed up. In Devon, this comprises 84 of 121 practices, and for Cornwall and Isles of Scilly it represents 45 out of 56.
Dr John McCormick, a GP, and the clinical lead for the DCCR, said: “We are developing the record progressively, in a controlled way, so we can be confident about the quality of the data that it contains, and how to use it.
“However, it is already supporting my work as a GP. I can see what’s going on with patients now in other parts of the system. It’s also very positive for practice staff, because they don’t have to chase up letters or ring other services all the time, just to find out what is happening.”
The DCCR saves time and improves the quality and safety of care, by reducing the amount of time that staff have to spend calling around for information and cutting the number of times that patients have to repeat their story.
The involvement of GP practices is crucial to the success of the DCCR, as they provide the most comprehensive data of any heath and care organisation.
The programme is part of a national project to provide ambulance staff with access to DCCR data when they care for patients via a regional scheme called One South West (OSW).
Alongside technical work, the programme team is looking at what information would be available and beneficial for the ambulance staff to be able to view.
There is strong evidence that providing ambulance staff with information that sets out patients’ wishes helps reduce unwarranted and unwanted transfers to hospital.
The development of shared care records is an important strand of the government’s digital health and social care policy. NHS England asked every integrated care system to have a ‘basic’ shared care record by September last year and has developed a maturity strategy to add additional features over the next three years.
The DCCR uses the Orion Health Amadeus platform, which it has chosen to provide the infrastructure for its shared care record. Orion Health is a leading provider of shared care records to the NHS in England, and also provides integrated care record systems to health boards in Scotland and the health and care system in Northern Ireland.
To contact the programme team, email d-icb.devonandcornwallcarerecord@nhs.net
