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I have recently returned from a 3 month sabbatical working in a
village health post in Gambia. One of the many things I learned there was
the value of patient held records, in many cases a couple of tatty bit of
paper stapled together. This hit home when I was doing an out of hours
session for my local co-operative, and I met a colleague who was dismayed
by the lack of available information about a patient he had just visited,
which he felt compromised his ability to provide a high standard of care.
Thinking about how this problem can be addressed, I am of course
aware of the potential confidentiality and security issues surrounding the
proposed NHS database of patient records. I wonder, however, if anybody
has suggested a far simpler compromise solution. Would it not be possible
to print off a patient summary record and ask the patient to keep it
somewhere safe at home in case they need a doctor outside office hours?
This could be done after each consultation if one wished it to be
completely up to date, or only after consulations where there were
significant changes to diagnoses or medication, or perhaps simply
annually.
Given that GP co-operatives are now contracted to look after patients
for more of the time than their actual in-hours GP practice, is it not
time now to start thinking of ways to provide this service to the highest
possible standard?
If this suggestion has already been made before and there are
numerous obvious reasons why it couldn't possibly work, then I apologise
for wasting everybody's time. I look forward to being enlightened on this
issue.
OOH GP service and national patient records system
Dear Sir/Madam
I have recently returned from a 3 month sabbatical working in a
village health post in Gambia. One of the many things I learned there was
the value of patient held records, in many cases a couple of tatty bit of
paper stapled together. This hit home when I was doing an out of hours
session for my local co-operative, and I met a colleague who was dismayed
by the lack of available information about a patient he had just visited,
which he felt compromised his ability to provide a high standard of care.
Thinking about how this problem can be addressed, I am of course
aware of the potential confidentiality and security issues surrounding the
proposed NHS database of patient records. I wonder, however, if anybody
has suggested a far simpler compromise solution. Would it not be possible
to print off a patient summary record and ask the patient to keep it
somewhere safe at home in case they need a doctor outside office hours?
This could be done after each consultation if one wished it to be
completely up to date, or only after consulations where there were
significant changes to diagnoses or medication, or perhaps simply
annually.
Given that GP co-operatives are now contracted to look after patients
for more of the time than their actual in-hours GP practice, is it not
time now to start thinking of ways to provide this service to the highest
possible standard?
If this suggestion has already been made before and there are
numerous obvious reasons why it couldn't possibly work, then I apologise
for wasting everybody's time. I look forward to being enlightened on this
issue.
Yours sincerely
Dr Costi Stavrianakis
LLB MBBS DFFP MRCGP
Sessional GP
Queenswood Practice, 50 Park Road, London N8 8SU
Competing interests:
None declared
Competing interests: No competing interests