Health Minister, Simon Burns, said: "I am pleased that a consensus has emerged about the importance of the SCR in supporting safe patient care, as long as the core information contained in it is restricted to medication, allergies and adverse reactions.

"Coupled with improvements to communication with patients which reinforce their right to opt out, we believe this draws a line under the controversies that the SCR has generated up to now.

"We see this review as having taken a significant step towards the goal of patients owning their records and using them to share decision-making with healthcare professionals."

Medical Director, Professor Sir Bruce Keogh, said: "In an advanced national health care system it is reasonable for citizens to expect that when they arrive in Accident & Emergency, or require treatment out of hours, that clinicians treating them have access to enough basic medical information to prevent anyone making wrong or even dangerous decisions."

Please visit the following helpful further information:

• Visit Summary Care Record
• Full press release
• Final report (PDF, 116Kb)
• Minutes from the first workshop of the Review of the Content of the Summary Care Record (PDF, 191Kb)
• Minutes from the second workshop of the Review of the Content of the Summary Care Record (PDF, 109Kb)
• Minutes from the first workshop of the Patient Information and Preference Review (PDF, 37Kb)
• Minutes from the second workshop of the Patient Information and Preference Review (PDF, 35Kb)