Pharmacy organisations have said they will work together to counteract claims made by the Telegraph in a story about pharmacy access to the summary care record (SCR).

In an article published online on 9 August, the Telegraph reported that privacy campaigners “fear major commercial chains will be able to exploit the valuable data, and use it to push the sales of their products,” thus breaching medical confidentiality and exposing patients to hard-sell tactics.

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society said it is working with PSNC, Pharmacy Voice, NHS England and Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) to correct these inaccuracies in the Telegraph story on SCR. They added: “Patients & public want pharmacists to support their care through timely access to relevant health information.”

A statement from NHS England stated: “The Summary Care Record (SCR) is used by healthcare professionals, on explicit consent of the patient, to support direct patient care…If a pharmacy professional shared confidential patient information for any purpose other than direct care, they can be held liable in law and held to account by the General Pharmaceutical Council, which has the legal authority to apply sanctions, up to and including withdrawal of their license to practice.

"There are specific processes in place which means accesses to SCR are monitored to make sure they are appropriate and are only made for patients when there is a clinical need.”

When asked by The Daily Telegraph for their opinion, Tesco and Superdrug rejected the suggestions. "At Superdrug, patient care is our highest priority. All team members who work in our pharmacies have completed enhanced data protection training to ensure sensitive personal data is handled appropriately.

"We do not subject patients to sales pressure based on prescription records and this will not change when the Summary Care Record is rolled out," a Superdrug spokesperson told the newspaper.

Click to read the full Telegraph article.