healthmedicinet

”Most NHS users would be astonished that information doesn’t flow around the
system.

”In many hospitals the IT systems aren’t even linked within a hospital, let
alone between hospitals and other parts of the health economy. That’s I’m
afraid a fairly normal situation across the country.

”Eleven people died last year in the NHS from being given the wrong
medication.

”This is a really important part of the compassionate care agenda, the safety
agenda, the integration agenda.”

He added: ”A few weeks ago I was in the AE department at Watford and
they admitted a lady there with late-stage dementia from a care home. I was
completely shocked to see that they knew absolutely nothing about her. She
was wasn’t able to speak and she had bruises all over her face but they
didn’t know for example whether that was her normal state not to be able to
speak or whether that was a result of her fall , they didn’t have her
medication, medical history, anything like that.

”That simply cannot be in people’s interest to have those gaps in
information.”

He added that there must be ”proper” safeguards in place to protect
patients’ personal information, adding: ”That’s why I have agreed that GPs
will not share information about what’s on people’s GP records with the
Health and Social Care Information Centre if people object. There will be
some overrides but only in situations like a public health emergency or in
life or death situations or child abuse.

”Essentially, people will have a veto on that information being shared in the
wider system.”

Mr Hunt’s comments followed the publication of Dame Fiona Caldicott’s review
into how NHS data is handled.

Dame Fiona highlighted a number of problems about the way information is
handled within the health and social care system in England.

Her report says that people’s lack of access to their own records causes “great
frustration”.

She recommended that all letters, emails, and other communications that health
and social care teams make regarding a patient’s care should be replicated
for the patient.

The report also says that some NHS managers are “unduly restrictive”
with information for fear that their organisation will be fined for
breaching data protection laws.

Mr Hunt has previously set out ambitions to make the NHS “paperless”
within the next five years.

He also said that GPs should make patient records available online by 2015.