Kingston creates clinical hub

NHS Kingston has selected Graphnet Health to create a clinical hub across its local economy with information uploaded with explicit consent only.

The hub will be launched next month and start by drawing together information from five GP practices, two pharmacies, two dentists, an optician and the out-of-hours provider.

After four months, the primary care trust plans to expand the project to the rest of Kingston, which covers 190,000 patients in 29 GP practices.

Information will be uploaded to a web-based portal with explicit consent offered to patients as they present at primary care providers.

Only patients on the safeguarding register and the primary care trust’s violent patient register, known as Primary Care Extra, will have their information uploaded with implied consent.

Kenny Gibson, associate director for the NHS South West London cluster, said the project had opted for explicit consent after concerns were raised about the implied consent model used by the Summary Care Record during an SCR patient information programme that the PCT ran last year.

He told EHI Primary Care: “The implied consent model caused a deal of struggle for some patients and some clinicians, and although we only had a 0.6% opt-out rate in Kingston I am not convinced that 99.4% wanted to join the scheme.”

Gibson said that flyers would be given out as patients presented at dentists, pharmacies and GP practices.

But extra marketing effort will be put into encouraging those with end of life care plans and patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease to join the scheme, since the benefits are expected to be greatest for these groups.

Gibson said clinicians were comfortable with the explicit consent model and he predicted the numbers of those with information on the hub would grow to 50% after two years. “Once clinicians see how useful it is I believe it will self-market itself,” he added.

Gibson said the PCT had selected Graphnet Health based on its experience and track record of similar projects across the UK. He added: “After a long evaluation of potential systems we found that they were the only company that provided everything we needed under one roof.”

The PCT is also using Your Healthcare IT Team to provide project management, transformation and support.

Information is to be uploaded to the web-based portal from EMIS, INPS and iSoft practices and from other contractors such as dentists and opticians.

The portal will provide access to demographic details plus antibiotic prescriptions and active referrals and providers will also be able to view a more detailed care record when needed.

The hub also includes an appointment scheduler, which will be used at this stage by Kingston’s health and care service, which is being built to hold five GP practices as well as community and social services.

Gibson said the system would be complementary to the SCR project. The hub will be reviewed after two years to see how it should develop in line with new technologies and the current state of both national and local information sharing projects.

The project also has plans for adding information from Kingston Hospital NHS Trust and community and mental health providers, subject to funding and benefits realisation work.

Andy Bratt, managing director of Graphnet Health said: “Graphnet have specialised in pulling together patient information for over 15 years and have seen first-hand the benefits that it offers to both clinicians and patients. We are delighted to be working with NHS Kingston on this exciting project.”