I was proud to be part of the Yorkshire and Humber Care Record team hosting the first national Shared Care Record summit earlier this year in Leeds. Over 200 colleagues from across health and care attended the Summit, with 35 of the 42 ICSs represented. Melissa Mead and Dr Rowan Pritchard Jones opened the event with extremely poignant words – a real grounding in reminding us why we all do the work we do in health and care. Over the two days, agenda themes for the Summit were put forward by the ICS community, and focused workshops took place where colleagues discussed the issues and agreed on critical actions, which were then shared with the audience.
The commitment, enthusiasm and ideas shared between colleagues over the two days made me incredibly proud to work with so many inspiring people motivated by the desire to make Shared Care Records work for staff and patients nationwide.
A report of the Summit has now been produced capturing the themes, the outcomes and the audience feedback as well as next steps and some video shorts. It is available here for anyone interested in Shared Care Records. It’s a comprehensive reflection on shared care record discussions, achievements and the plans for the next steps. We would welcome anyone to read the report and to let me know their thoughts and what we might consider going forward – as I am confident this will not be the last Shared Care Record Summit in the UK.
Summary of Outcomes and Outputs
I encourage you to read the report in full. However, the key outcomes and outputs were:
– Accelerate development and adoption of data and interoperability standards
– Establish a sustainable future for Shared Care Records
– Professional engagement and user-first design – ensure that user-focused design is central and ongoing.
– Clinical Safety – Form a Shared Care Record Clinical Safety Officer Group to share best practices.
– Information Governance
– Accelerate development of record locater capability
For me, the events’ actions and outcomes reflect why Shared Care Records are so fundamentally important to the future of the NHS. Seamless information sharing enables healthcare professionals to make more informed decisions and provide coordinated care, ensuring continuity and consistency throughout a patient’s healthcare journey. It is crucial to patients’ lives, and we were fortunate enough to hear that at the Summit from the patients themselves too.
Thanks to everyone who spoke and support the event and of course the attendees who continue to share our goal of sharing information to improve the lives of patients and public. Full event here.
Lee Rickles