GP Connect: Update Record

GP Connect: Update Record is one of the enhancements to connect general practice and community pharmacy announced in the NHS England delivery plan for recovering access to primary care (May 2023).

Update Record has been technically and clinically assured for use between community pharmacy and general practice and can only be used for 3 services:

• Pharmacy First
• Blood Pressure Check
• Pharmacy Contraception services

Update Record is safe and secure and can only be used by registered community pharmacy professionals to send consultation summaries, including details of any medicines supplied. Consultation summaries are sent in a structured format directly into general practice workflow for filing, rather than via NHSmail or letter.

It is designed to make it easier for general practices and their teams to support the safe, accurate and timely update of GP patient records. 

GP Connect: Update Record allows only registered community pharmacy professionals to send pharmacy consultation summaries after a Pharmacy First Service, Blood Pressure Check Service or Pharmacy Contraception Service.

Only the general practice clinical system suppliers (EMIS and TPP) and the four community pharmacy suppliers (Cegedim Healthcare Solutions, EMIS Pinnacle, Positive Solutions, Sonar Informatics) have been clinically and technically assured to use Update Record.

Update Record sends the community pharmacy consultation summary including details of any medicines supplied, directly into general practice workflows for filing, rather than via NHSmail or letter.

Update Record is designed to:

• reduce the admin burden for general practice staff to manually transcribe information from NHSmail or letters
• improve patient safety by reducing the risk of over-prescribing and increasing antimicrobial resistance (it also reduces errors caused by manual transcription)

General practice can choose to use Update Record to receive consultation summaries from community pharmacy directly into the general practice workflow or receive these communications via NHSmail or letter.

When a practice has Update Record enabled the community pharmacy consultation summaries, including observations, notes and any medicines supplied, arrive in the GPIT system’s workflow for filing in the GP patient record.

As clinical healthcare professionals, community pharmacists have full responsibility for ensuring that any medicines supplied are clinically appropriate. GPs are not responsible for management and treatment decisions including any medicines supplied by registered community pharmacy professionals.

In the vast majority of cases, patients will not require ongoing treatment or monitoring by GPs following a community pharmacy consultation. The specification for each of the services delivered through community pharmacy set out guidelines for escalation and onward referral where clinically appropriate.

Community pharmacy consultation summaries (including observations, notes and any medicines supplied) arrive in the general practice workflow in GPIT systems for filing in the GP patient record. A workflow task is created in the GPIT system for every community pharmacy consultation summary received, so it is visible to the practice before filing into the GP patient record with one click.

The community pharmacy team will capture consent that the patient is happy to share details of the consultation with their GP practice. Patients will be made aware that a consultation summary and any medicines supplied may be visible in NHS App and other patient-facing services, where this has been enabled by the practice. In the case of contraception consultations, a patient can choose to not have this information shared.

Update record has not changed the GP practice’s data controller role or responsibilities:

• GPs are responsible for the data in the GP patient record. Update Record presents the community pharmacy consultation summary in the practice workflow ready for it to be added to the GP patient record. It is only when the data has been added to the GP patient record that the GP becomes responsible for the data. The details of the community pharmacy where the consultation took place and the name of the clinician that the patient was seen by is in the message and clearly visible in the patient record.
• Community pharmacists are responsible for the data generated as part of the patient consultation.
• NHS England is responsible for the safe and secure transit of data between care settings.
   

GP Connect: Update Record allows only registered community pharmacy professionals to send pharmacy consultation summaries after a Pharmacy First Service, Blood Pressure Check Service or Pharmacy Contraception Service.

Only the general practice clinical system suppliers (EMIS and TPP) and the four community pharmacy suppliers (Cegedim Healthcare Solutions, EMIS Pinnacle, Positive Solutions, Sonar Informatics) have been clinically and technically assured to use Update Record.

Update Record sends the community pharmacy consultation summary, including details of any medicines supplied, directly into general practice workflow for filing, rather than via NHSmail or letter.

Community pharmacies do not need to take any action to implement Update Record and will not notice any changes to the user interface. Community pharmacy professionals should continue to record and submit consultation summaries into their clinical IT system in the usual way.

If a practice has turned off Update Record, the community pharmacy must send the consultation summary via NHSmail or letter for the practice to manually transcribe into the GP patient record. Community pharmacy should follow IT supplier guidance.

Update Record is designed to reduce the admin burden for community pharmacy staff to send consultation summaries via NHSmail or letters.

Community pharmacy consultation summaries (including observations, notes and any medicines supplied) arrive in the general practice IT system’s workflow in a structured format that means the practice can easily and quickly update the patient’s GP record.

The community pharmacy team must capture consent that the patient is happy to share details of the consultation with their GP practice. Patients should be made aware that a consultation summary and any medicines supplied may be visible in NHS App and other patient-facing services where this has been enabled by the practice.

In the case of contraception consultations, a patient can choose to not have this information shared with their GP.

The community pharmacy team must capture patient consent to share details of the consultation with their GP. Patients should be made aware that a consultation summary and any medicines supplied may be visible in NHS App and other patient-facing services where this has been enabled by the practice.

In the case of contraception consultations, a patient can choose to not have this information shared with the GP. For example, where a person under 16 years old is receiving contraception services. In these cases, the community pharmacy professional should capture in the pharmacy consultation record that the patient does not consent to the information being shared with general practice.

Update Record has not changed the community pharmacy data controller role or responsibilities. Community Pharmacy businesses are responsible for the data generated as part of the patient consultation.