GP2GP transfer software installed in 2000 practices

Connecting for Health has announced that it has rolled out GP2GP record transfer software to its two thousandth practice and transferred more than 25,000 records using the software.

The two milestones for the project mean that nearly one in four English GP practices now has access to GP2GP. So far the rollout only involves practices with EMIS LV 5.2 and INPS Vision 3 but CfH aims to complete its GP2GP project by December 2008 and says other suppliers will be joining the rollout in future.

CfH told EHI Primary Care that GP2GP was also halving the time taken to do summaries of patient records, according to research in the two early adopter areas of Gateshead and Isle of Wight.

Dr Paul Cundy, co-chair of the Joint GP IT Committee of the RCGP and GPC and a member of the GP2GP project board, told EHI Primary Care: “Your records are pre-summarised when they come in so it is bound to halve the time it takes.”

The national roll-out of GP2GP is of version 1.1 of GP2GP which enables record transfers between different systems.

Hilary Ellis, a practice manager at St James's Medical Practice in Croydon, said her practice has a high patient turnover making keeping up with summarising of records a challenge. She added: “We use INPS Vision here and have had records from practices with EMIS LV. They do look a little different, and a few things appear in different places but I just flag this up on the patient's record. The information's all there for you now. You still need to check it but overall the processing is a lot quicker."

A statement issued by CFH said the progress to date was down to a “massive collaborative effort” between CfH, PCTs, strategic health authorities, the GP professional bodies and clinical system suppliers.