My Care Record

My Care Record allows health and care professionals working directly with you to access your medical and social care information. This is to improve the care you receive.

Patient information and care records are usually made available through traditional methods such as secure post, fax or email. This can be slow and, at times, unreliable, and possibly prolong diagnosis and treatment.

My Care Record is accessed via secure but different health and care computer systems from different partner organisations. The information is requested from the original system and relayed to the health or care professional treating you.

By making your information available across the health and care system the direct care team including your GP practice, hospital team or community nurse will be able to see the most up-to-date, accurate information about you.

For example, if you were receiving care at one of the hospitals involved, the doctor treating you would be able to see your GP record on their own computer.

This will lead to:

Better co-ordinated and seamless care
Quicker diagnosis and treatment
More time to spend on clinical care
Less paperwork and less repetition
Fewer unnecessary clinical tests
More accurate prescriptions
Safe and secure decision-making

My Care Record will only be used by professionals involved in your care. Full details on how My Care Record manage your information is available on their website: www.mycarerecord.org.uk as well as more information about where My Care Record is in operation, the organisations taking part and answers to frequently asked questions.

Fair Processing Notice

How we use your information

What is My Care Record?

In west Essex and Hertfordshire, providers of health and social care services are working more closely together to better co-ordinate the delivery of care to people supported by local commissioners.

My Care Record is a programme which allows people to give health and care professionals their permission to access their medical records during their treatment.

The people caring for you need to access about your health and care record in order to make the best decisions about your diagnosis and treatment. This could include GPs, hospital-based clinicians, nurses, health visitors and social workers.

To enable this to happen more quickly and to improve the care you receive, a new process has been put in place. This will allow your information to be accessed by different health and care organisations, using existing computer systems.

Your record will only be accessed by health and care professionals involved in your care.

Information will only be accessed with your permission – where applicable - and while you are receiving direct treatment by a health and care professional.

Information accessed through My Care Record is treated to the same security standards as all confidential information.

What information will be made available?

The record accessed is your health and care record. Examples of information that will be available include:

Name, address, NHS Number and phone number

Medications
Test results and investigations
Correspondence
Clinical history
Emergency department treatment
Future and past appointments
Health plans and alerts
Mental health alerts and diagnoses
Social care lead co-ordinator and your care plan.

How is this information used?

The information available in the record from your care provider is in a chronological order so that your care provider can see a relevant history of your care. They will always update their own care record with any new information. This helps them to make better decisions about your care. Access is only with your explicit permission.

The organisations that could be involved in the service are:

GP practices in west Essex and Hertfordshire
Princess Alexandra Hospital Trust
Essex Partnership University NHS Trust (EPUT)
Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust
Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust
East of England Ambulance
IC24 (111 provider)
Out of hours providers (such as PELC, HUC)
Essex County Council and their care providers (such as Essex Cares)
Hertfordshire County Council
Other local hospitals (such as Addenbrooke’s, Whipps Cross, Broomfield, East and North Hertfordshire and West Hertfordshire Trusts)

You can tell your care provider if you don’t want them to make your information available by completing a form available on www.mycarerecord.org.uk or by asking your care provider for one. Your record will be edited and no information will be available to access.

Access to your information

My Care Record is simply a reflection of your individual records held by the organisations above and therefore you should contact them directly if you wish to have a copy of the information held about you. The contact details for each organisation’s Data Protection Officer or Team is below.

Contact details for data protection officers: