Summary Care Record – your emergency care summary
The NHS in England is introducing the Summary Care Record (SCR), which will be used in emergency care.
To ensure those caring for you have enough information to treat you safely, the record will contain information about any medicines you are taking, allergies you suffer from and any bad reactions to medicines you have had.
Your Summary Care Record will be available to authorised healthcare staff providing your care anywhere in England, but they will ask your permission before they look at it. This means that if you have an Accident or become ill, the doctors treating you will have immediate access to important information about your health.
As a patient you have a choice:
- Yes I would like a Summary Care Record – you do not need to do anything and a Summary Care Record will be created for you.
- No I do not want a Summary Care Record – get the opt out form. Please complete the form and hand it to a member of the GP practice staff.
If you need more time to make your choice you should let your GP Practice know.
Additional copies of the opt out form can be collected from the GP practice, printed from the website www.nhscarerecords.nhs.uk or requested from the dedicated NHS Summary Care Record Information Line on 0300 123 3020.
You can choose not to have a Summary Care Record and you can change your mind at any time by informing your GP practice.
If you do nothing we will assume that you are happy with these changes and create a Summary Care Record for you. Children under 16 will automatically have a Summary Care Record created for them unless their parent or guardian chooses to opt them out. If you are the parent or guardian of a child under 16 and feel that they are old enough to understand, then you should make this information available to them.
You can find out more by contacting www.nhscarerecords.nhs.uk or telephone the dedicated NHS Summary Care Record Information Line on 0300 123 3020.
If you're particularly at risk of needing emergency medical care, for example, if you are getting older and have a history of falls or serious breathing problems, you can choose to have other useful information added to your SCR, including:
- Your illnesses and any health problems
- Operations and vaccinations you have had in the past
- How you would like to be treated – such as where you would prefer to receive care
- What support you might need
- Who should be contacted for more information about you.
All of these will help emergency or hospital doctors treat you, especially if you’re too unwell to tell them everything yourself or if you’re on your own.
What to do next
If you think you want to add other useful information to your SCR, talk to your GP practice. They will add it to your SCR and keep it up to date for you.
If there is information you don’t want adding, let your GP practice know.
For more information
- Talk to staff at your GP practice
- Call 0300 303 5678
