Leeds has become the first city in which the GP Connect Service has become available to all of the local GP practices.
It will enable them to share patient information from their records with authorised clinicians in hospitals.
The programme, which provides connections between different systems through APIs, has been fully implemented in Leeds after GP system supplier TPP last month joined EMIS Health in making the connections. EMIS completed the integration of its system last September.
It has been developed by NHS Digital, the ICT partner of the health and care system, and made available in the city with the support of the Leeds Informatics Board.
This follows a period in which Leeds Teaching Hospital Trust has led a pilot on using the GPI Connect API for viewing patient records, and has built on the experience of the Leeds Care Record, which brings together information from health and social care.
Transformational
Andy Webster, consultant in emergency medicine and chief clinical information officer at the trust, said: “The GP Connect initiative will be transformational to clinicians working in the hospital to enable them to deliver more informed patient care.
“Primary care information is often key to many of the decisions we make on a daily basis. Access to this information will enable access to information from GP systems 24 hours a day 7 days a week.
“It will also reduce the administration burden for GP practices having to send information often by insecure communication routes such as fax."
Richard Corbridge, chief digital and information officer at the trust, said it will support plans for a fully integrated record covering primary, hospital, mental health and social care in the course of this year.
There are also plans for APIs to enable GP Connect to provide secure access to information on patient medications and allergies, and to support more efficient appointment management between practices.
Image from iStock, Berekin Health
