Pharmacy bodies have rallied to defend pharmacy access to the summary care record in response to a scaremongering article in The Telegraph. Charlotte Rixon reports

A misleading article published on 10 August in The Telegraph has claimed that pharmacy businesses such as Tesco, Superdrug and Boots would be able to use information in the summary care record (SCR) to target patients with product promotions. Pharmacy access to the SCR was rolled out across England last month to improve patient safety and reduce pressure on GPs.

Secure safeguards

Responding to the allegations, PSNC, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) and Pharmacy Voice have written a letter to the newspaper, outlining the safeguards that will prevent unauthorised viewing of the SCR. The letter pointed out that access will only be granted to pharmacists or pharmacy technicians using a secure NHS Smartcard and PIN, and only with the patient’s consent.

In addition, each point of access will be monitored by the NHS and be traceable back to the individual, who will be held accountable by the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) if they are deemed to have used the information for anything other than direct patient care.

Successful pilot

The organisations also highlighted findings from a successful pilot scheme involving 140 community pharmacies last year, which found that SCR access enabled pharmacy teams to avert prescribing errors and avoid referring patients to their GP surgery or A&E. It also referenced a YouGov poll (August 2014) in which 85 per cent of respondents agreed that every healthcare professional treating them should have secure electronic access to key data from their GP record.

Alistair Buxton, PSNC director of NHS services, commented: “Community pharmacists are regularly identified as the most trusted healthcare professionals and they are already well informed about patients’ medicines and in some cases the conditions they are treating. This sensitive information is already handled properly and confidentially in pharmacies and similar practices will be adopted to secure the data in the SCR.”

PSNC has developed a briefing (available via: the PSNC website) to help pharmacy teams respond to any concerns raised by the public.