Detailed care records

We also keep more detailed care records about you and the care you have had. These are different to your Summary Care Record.

By making these records electronic, information from them will be easier to find in other parts of the NHS that support and provide your care. Better access to your information makes your care quicker, safer and more personal.

How will I benefit?

• Healthcare staff supporting and providing your care can see and share up-to-date, accurate information about you to help inform decisions about your care and to prevent mistakes. For example, better decisions can be made about what medicine to give you if it is known what you are already taking, or if you have had a bad reaction to a medicine in the past.
• Your care is less likely to be delayed because your paper records are somewhere else. We won't need to do as many tests because the results were lost or are unavailable.
• You should not have to repeat the same details over and over again when you receive care.

How will you control who can see my detailed care records?

Making and linking electronic records across different places where care is provided brings great benefits, but it also brings increased risk. When records can be shared more easily, they need to be better protected. There are many different computer systems in different NHS organisations; over time these will work to similar standards of security. People who can see your records:

• need to be involved with your care;
• need to have a NHS Smartcard with a chip and passcode (like a bank card and PIN);
• should only look at the information they need to do their job; and
• should have their details recorded – who they are and if they have added or changed information.

These measures mean that your information is stored safely, stays private and can only be looked at by those healthcare staff supporting or providing your care.

However, you need to remember that there are always risks when information is kept on computers – as there is when information is kept on paper.

Where local computers can support this, you may want to hide parts of your detailed care record, or decide how much is shared with other parts of the NHS.

If you want to find out more about this, ask your local NHS.