Almost £100m spent on fast-growing SCR

Two hundred thousand Summary Care Records were created in a seven day period in June, as the Department of Health considered the scheme as part of its review of the use of IT in the NHS.

Figures published by NHS Connecting for Health show that on 18 June, 1.7m SCRs had been created. By 25 June, that figure had risen to 1.9m.

The DH told EHI Primary Care last month that SCR uploads would continue during the review, although no new public information programmes would be launched.

Almost 30m patients had been informed about the SCR programme through a PIP before the decision to halt new PIPs was made.

This week, health minister Simon Burns also revealed the cost of the SCR in a parliamentary written answer to Conservative MP David Davis.

The health minister said £96.7m has been spent on the development of the SCR to date, and that a further £48.8m is due to be spent on the project.

However, the figures do not include any local costs spent on SCR implementation. Burns said this  information was not collected centrally.

Hampshire GP Dr Neil Bhatia said he felt there is a lot of confusion surrounding the SCR and that the government appears to be proceeding with the scheme, with little regard to the outcome of any review.

He added: “Hundreds of thousands of records are still being uploaded despite everything that’s been talked about recently, including the UCL review which showed that most patients weren’t aware of the SCR after information had been sent to them.”

The UCL review, which was led by Professor Trisha Greenhalgh, was published recently. It also concluded that SCRs had yet to deliver significant benefits, with no direct evidence of safer care although they did find improved quality in some consultations.

The BMA has agreed with the DH that uploads can continue, subject to the agreement of GP practices and PCT satisfaction with GP data quality.

In his written answer, Burns said the government was reviewing the content and opt-out arrangements for the SCR and said that review would “inform final decisions on future spending plans as part of the government’s spending review.”