News & Events
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Consultation - Electronic Patient Records
Who Sees What? Conversation Game
The Oldham LINk organised discussion game sessions regarding the national consultation of electronic patient records during the month of February.
Who Sees What? is a project to help people from all over the UK learn about, discuss and decide about the way that the NHS uses their record.
The patient records system in the NHS is set for dramatic changes over the next few years as part of a massive IT programme. The new system of electronic patient records has the potential to transform the relationship between patients and the NHS and to deliver real improvements in healthcare. But it also opens up new types of risks to patient privacy.
The NHS is creating a shared Electronic Patient Record system for England. The aim is to make treatment quicker and safer by ensuring that health professionals always have access to the information that they need. A national database of medical information could also have massive benefits for research.
However, there are drawbacks. The project has found it difficult to design systems that are suitable for the huge and diverse NHS and is years behind schedule. Many computer experts are concerned that the database opens up new risks to patients’ privacy. And there is still debate about whether patients should get to choose whether their record is made electronic, and if so how the NHS should deal with getting their consent.
There are four main parts to the Electronic Patient Record project:
- Summary Care Records will contain basic information like prescriptions and allergies and will be shared across the whole of England. They will be useful in emergencies and when patients are being treated by people other than their regular doctor.
- Detailed Care Records will bring together more in-depth information from different providers like GPs, hospitals and possibly community carers, so that information can be shared. They will be held at a regional level.
- The Secondary Uses Service makes a record every time a patient receives hospital treatment. These records are used to pay hospitals, but the information about patients is also useful for medical research or monitoring hospitals.
- HealthSpace is a website where patients can view their own record online with a username and password
Who Sees What? provides a forum for members of the public to find out about the new systems, and discuss the risks and opportunities. They have produced a Democs conversation game which is designed to help people with no prior knowledge talk about the plans.
Each game is to be played with a maximum of 8 people; therefore we ran three sessions to enable local people to have their say.
Everyone’s views were recorded and forwarded to Nef (the new economics foundation) so that they can be included in the debate.
Each session was extremely lively, highlighting some very important issues. Nef will be holding an event in June to invite people along who contributed to the debate to discuss findings with policy makers. The website will be updated with details of the event as soon as details become available.
August 2009
In August Oldham LINk was on the big screen in the Spindles Shopping Centre! A big thank you to everyone who took the time to sign up and become either a member or participant. We are currently in the process of getting touch with people who took part. However, if you would like to become a member now don't hesitate JOIN NOW!
July 2009
In July we held a Joint Members’ Development Day, which aimed to identify the training needs of LINk members in relation to aligning members’ capabilities with those needed to achieve the aims of the LINk. This was a great success, we hope the report will highlight important training needs so the host team can ensure LINk members are well supported and can achieve their goals. This will enable the Work Plan to be enlarged, members to have more autonomy when facilitating Working Groups and more people to be involved with the Oldham LINk.
Below are documents relating to the outcome of the day:
Oldham Summary report Greater Manchester LINks' Joint Member Development Day July 09
Greater Manchester LINks' Joint Member Development Day report July 2009
June 2009
In June 2009 we held an Annual Review which focused on what the LINk has achieved in the past year and how the LINk would like to progress.
