Initial plans were that patients' records would be automatically be uploaded, without seeking patient consent. In December 2006, Sir
Liam Donaldson, the
Chief Medical Officer, wrote to GPs telling them that letters from patients requesting that their records should not be uploaded should be sent to
Patricia Hewitt, the health secretary, for 'full consideration', causing consternation among privacy campaigners.
Opting-out introduced As a result of pressure from privacy campaigners, the
British Medical Association (BMA), the Ethics Committee of the
Royal College of General Practitioners, and a report by the Department of Health's 'patients tsar' Harry Cayton (the Report of the Ministerial Taskforce on the Summary Care Record), the Government agreed that patients would be able to
opt out of the Summary Care Record. After further pressure, it was decided that patients would be contacted before records were uploaded to provide them with the opportunity to opt out. Unless the patient does explicitly opt-out within the specified period after being notified (12 weeks as of April 2010), their details will be uploaded. Once entered
and viewed, records cannot be fully deleted. A number of pilot schemes followed, in the primary care trust areas of
Bolton,
Bury, South
Birmingham,
Dorset, South West
Essex, and
Bradford &
Airedale. In response to a
freedom of information request, the Department of Health revealed that, 258,488 patients' clinical records had been updated to form Summary Care Records, as at 24 April 2009. The Department was unable to provide information on how many of these related to children. Problems with the opting out scheme were reported by the independent evaluation, published 2010. In September 2010 it was reported that the opt-out rate had risen from 0.6% to nearly 1% By 18 March 2010 letters had been sent to at least some patients notifying them that their details were to be entered unless they opted out within 12 weeks. On 16 April 2010 the Department of Health suspended the implementation of Summary Care Records in the areas leading the roll-out, following calls to do so by the British Medical Association. The BMA believed that implementation was moving forward too rapidly, that patients did not have enough information, and that it was too hard for them to opt out. A week later it was reported that several
primary care trusts and the
NHS East of England Strategic Health Authority were seeking a dispensation to continue with their implementation. In August 2015 it was announced that retail pharmacies would be given access to NHS patients Summary Care Records after a pilot of 140 pharmacies in Somerset, Northampton, North Derbyshire, Sheffield and West Yorkshire, demonstrated "significant benefits". Pharmacists have to ask for a patient’s permission to view their record, and are required to complete the relevant
Centre for Pharmacy Postgraduate Education e-learning package. In 2018 information on long-term health conditions, medical history and immunisations was available, and according to
NHS Digital, this reduced the burden on the health service during winter.
Patient awareness Another concern that was raised in 2010 is that surveys have shown that most patients know nothing of the SCR scheme even if they have received leaflets, so that when people receive a package on the SCR it goes straight in the bin as
junk mail. ==Criticism==