NHS Connecting for Health welcomes the independent evaluation report by University College London, which we commissioned to inform the development of the Summary Care Record programme in the NHS.

The purpose of the Summary Care Record early adopter programme is to identify and resolve issues such as those highlighted in the report, ahead of national rollout. The evaluation report is a key part of informing that work.

The purpose of the Summary Care Record is to improve the quality and continuity of patient care. It fills a gap in the care of patients attending unscheduled care settings such as A&E departments, Walk in Centres and Out of Hours services, by making key information available from their GP record. When asked, many patients cannot believe that this information is not already available in these situations.

Even at this early stage examples are emerging where the use of the Summary Care Record on the ground has changed what would have happened for the benefit of patients.

The report provides a number of important learning points, particularly on the question of patient consent to use the Summary Care Record, and the need to retain a clear focus on the purpose and scope of the Summary Care Record as it is implemented.

NHS Connecting for Health will be considering and discussing these important issues with key stakeholders. The Summary Care Record Advisory Group will be asked to consider urgently the report's findings and to advise on how the findings will inform the future roll out of the Summary Care Record.

The Summary Care Record early adopter programme will continue in its present form whilst the Summary Care Record Advisory Group considers the report's findings before further roll out commences.

Dr David Colin-Thomé, chair of the Summary Care Record Advisory Group, said:

"I welcome the publication of the report of the evaluation of the Summary Care Record Early Adopter Programme by University College London. It is important to maintain momentum on the Summary Care Record and to assimilate the learning as quickly as possible, with the help and advice of the Summary Care Record Advisory Group".

Dr Gillian Braunold, Clinical Director of the Summary Care Record and HealthSpace Programme, said:

"We set up the early adopter programme to ensure that problems, issues and practicalities of implementation were tested out in real life health care situations in a controlled and safe environment.

The report offers the programme the foundations on which to base the necessary planning for improvement in design and implementation before national roll out. This will enable the ambition of enabling safer better care for patients in emergency and unscheduled care across England as quickly as possible."

Professor Steve Field, Chairman, Royal College of General Practitioners

"The RCGP supports the use of electronic medical records in improving patient safety and Connecting for Health has made significant progress in ensuring that we have a safe and trustworthy system in which both doctors and patients can have confidence.

We are particularly pleased that action has been taken to address our previous concerns about confidentiality and safeguards and that the SCR will be rolled out in a careful and considered way.

A safe working electronic record is essential to an effective, modern NHS and we are now well on the way to achieving this."

PDF version of the full report (PDF, 2Mb) on the UCL website.

PDF version of the executive summary (PDF, 228Kb) on the UCL website.

Further information on the NHS CFH Evaluation Programme run by the University of Birmingham, including details of current projects and on-going work final reports and publications, is available on their website.