Scots GPs say paper should guide portals

GPs in Scotland have demanded that a series of security measures are introduced to protect patient confidentiality when their records are accessed electronically.

Last week’s Scottish Local Medical Committees’ conference heard that GPs are coming under increasing pressure to share information from their records with the introduction of clinical portals across Scotland.

However, GPs agreed that secondary care clinicians should not have access to the whole of the GP record. Instead, they agreed that only information that would normally be shared on paper should be available to them electronically.

The LMCs conference also voted for three safeguards to be put in place to protect patient confidentiality.

These are a Scottish wide NHS identity and access management system, role-based access control to patient records, and a limit on access to where there is a current clinical relationship with the patient.

Dr Alan McDevitt, joint deputy chairman of the BMA’s Scottish GP committee, told EHI Primary Care: “We agreed that it was reasonable to share the kind of information we have been sharing on paper for years and that patients would expect us to share such as information provided on referral.

"However viewing of actual notes of a consultationis beyond what patients would expect us to share."

NHS Tayside has already introduced a clinical portal to share information between primary and secondary care and other health boards have plans to introduce portals.

Last week, Scottish MPs criticised what they described as the slow timescale for developing portal technology in Scotland. MPs also wanted to see a central element to portal developments, rather than the creation of multiple portal systems.

In other motions at the Scottish LMCs' conference, family doctors called for greater involvement of GPs in the organisation and structuring of the Scottish health helpline NHS 24.

They also demanded that hospitals provide timely and accurate discharge information and look to provide it electronically.