Shared Care Record logo

What is the Shared Care Record?

The Shared Care Record is a system that aims to improve care by joining up information which is currently held in separate patient databases by health and care services across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. The Shared Care Record will enable clinicians and care professionals to access up-to-date information about the individuals they are caring for from these systems.  

The Shared Care Record will provide:  

  • A read-only view of the patient’s information
  • Better co-ordinated and seamless care
  • Quicker diagnosis and treatment
  • More time to spend on clinical care
  • Less paperwork and avoid repetition
  • Fewer unnecessary clinical tests
  • More accurate prescriptions
  • Better health and care planning

The Shared Care Record will make sharing information across services within our region easier. Being part of a simple, consistent approach that works across boundaries will bring significant benefits. It will help to improve the care your patients receive as well as reduce the time spent on administration to co-ordinate care. Having the Shared Care Record in place will make sure you and your patients can benefit as we invest in more technology to share care records across services. It will also allow us to make the most of the technology we already have.

Who is involved?

The Integrated Care System’s (ICS) health and care partners involved in Shared Care Record for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough are listed below:

  • 87 general practices, grouped into 22 Primary Care Networks
  • Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
  • Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust (CPFT)
  • Cambridgeshire Community Service NHS Trust (CCS)
  • Cambridgeshire County Council (CCC)
  • NHS Cambridgeshire and Peterborough (the local Integrated Care Board, ICB)
  • North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust (NWAFT)
  • Peterborough City Council (PCC)
  • Royal Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust)

How is the project being delivered?

The Shared Care Record is being delivered by a Central Digital Team in two distinct phases to support clinical decision making. Data and information already held in digital systems across the ICS area is pulled into this new system and then made available for staff to access in a read-only view to support the delivery of direct care.

Phase 1 – went live from 16 May 2023

Our partners took a phased approach to going live with users from 16 May 2023. Information (data) was made available to users from existing records in National Services, Primary Care (GPs), Mental Health and Community Health Services across our area.

Information now available:

Information from Primary Care, Community & Mental Health:

  • Allergies
  • Appointments
  • Care Episodes
  • Diagnoses
  • Encounters/Consultations
  • Follow Ups/Diary Recall
  • Immunisations
  • Medication
  • Observations
  • Problems
  • Procedures
  • Referrals
  • Templates
  • Test Results/Pathology Results

 

Information from Primary Care:

  • Patient Demographics
  • Family History

 

Information from National Services:

  • Alerts
  • Patient Demographics

 

Phase 2

North West Anglia Foundation Trust will be the first of our eight partners to go live with Phase 2. Work continues behind the scenes to enable them to start sharing their existing information with other partners after a period of robust testing.

Cambridgeshire County Council and Peterborough City Council have completed their technical integration into the system and should be our next partners to go live. This will see additional and previously unavailable information like adult social care data become visible in the Shared Care Record. Our remaining partners continue to collaborate with the Central Team to finalise the technical plans that will enable them to connect existing systems to the Shared Care Record.

Phase 2 when delivered across all our partners will provide additional critical and valuable information for organisations and services across our region to access. This will include data and information from our acute hospitals and from our GP services to support direct care.

The Future

We continue to work on solutions for the future expansion of the system and to pull in and make available information from a range of related health and care organisations. As an example, Cambridgeshire Community Services Dental Team has already proactively approached us to get access to the Shared Care Record.

The Dental Service clinical team identified the following information as being beneficial to them for the purpose of administrating and treating people who need their special care dentistry services.

This information is often difficult to get directly from the patient:

  • Current medication list
  • Medical history
  • Ongoing medical conditions
  • Allergies

Dental Service users will be able to access information in the Shared Care Record when Phase 2 is live.

What are the branding principles for My Care Record and Shared Care Record?

Shared Care Record logo

The Shared Care Record brand and logo is used for all internal communications to staff in our partner organisations.  The Shared Care Record can be described as the technology, or a single system. Health and care professionals use technology such as shared care records to join-up information securely.

My Care Record logo

The My Care Record brand and logo is used for all public facing communications.

My Care Record is an approach to improving care by joining up health and care information. My Care Record is not the technology, or a single system – it is not the method of sharing but supports providers to use technology such as shared care records to join-up information securely.

Communication Materials

Please use the communications materials and social media assets below to strengthen campaign messages to the public. Please use these with the caveat that during Phase 1 not all the benefits described will be available. Full benefits will only be realised on completion of Phase 2.    

Social Media Graphics

If you would like help with translations for your patients and service users or to see what other areas in the region have done with My care record, please visit www.mycarerecord.org.uk

When will the public My Care Record campaign go live?

The Phase 1 public My Care Record campaign was delivered in September 2022. This was a proactive campaign to inform the public of their options with respect to sharing data. We contacted all households across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough to let them know how we would be using their information. Everyone who was contacted was given the opportunity to object to their records and data being shared (opt out) via the Shared Care Record system.

GDPR (General Data Protection Regulations) provides the legal basis to share information between health and care services when it is needed to deliver direct care. Within this, there is a requirement to be transparent with the public about how information is shared. Any individual who has a health or social care record is allowed to object to their data being shared in this way.