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Use cases for Additional Information
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Next chapter: Potential disadvantages of keeping Additional Information
Our research identified the following areas that have particular use cases for Additional Information and would value it continuing to be available in Summary Care Records after the pandemic-related Control of Patient Information (COPI) regulations expire.
Summary Care Record access allows me to see a patient’s history and medication, rather than relying on their often-imperfect recollection. The Additional Information over the last few months has been a real boon, particularly dealing with older patients and their complex co-morbidities. It would be a real loss for OOHs GPs to go back to limited SCR access this winter.
Out of hours psychiatry services
Psychiatric services are often busier from Friday evening and over the weekend. Having access to Additional Information means staff can prescribe vital medication at weekends, rather than having to wait until they can check details with a GP.
Access also allows mental health services to assess whether their users are taking their medications as they’ve been advised, and to understand if that is the reason for a relapse of their psychosis, or if there is something else going on.
The Additional Information really helps us even more than the basic details. From our perspective it fills in a lot of blanks, where the patient either doesn’t know, doesn’t want to tell us, or can’t remember their past medical history and is a good time saver on each job when we can access it there and then. I really hope it continues.
I would argue that it is absolutely essential for us to have access to that information in the prison estate, because we don’t have anything else.”