Potential disadvantages of keeping Additional Information

Large amounts of additional information can make a record very long. This can make life difficult for a user trying to find information quickly. The SCR becomes less of a summary for quick decisions and more of a detailed record.

This can be an issue in additional information. For example, diagnoses do not appear until a patient has been discharged from hospital and the GP has been notified of their treatment.

Access to additional information may introduce the potential for harm to arise from a clinician relying on the information in the Summary Care Record alone to make clinical decisions.

From its inception, the Summary Care Record has taken the information included from the patient’s GP record and this is by design.

However, users from various backgrounds have told us that it would be more beneficial if they could write to the SCR. They felt they should be able to add details of attendances, newly prescribed drugs, and discovered allergies. Some settings provide discharge summaries to GPs, so the SCR is updated, but others do not, for example, paramedic attendance where there is non-conveyance, the patient is not taken to hospital.