Cambridgeshire and Peterborough’s Integrated Care System (ICS) has signed an eight-year contract with Orion Health to develop a shared care record that will be used by eight health and care organisations and all GP practices in its area.
The shared care record will take data feeds from the IT systems used by health and social care providers and create a single, holistic view of a patient’s medical and care information.
This will reduce the amount of time patients spend repeating basic details about themselves to different services, while enabling professionals to deliver more-efficient, co-ordinated health and care services, with less paperwork.
The first phase of the project will launch in spring 2022, with a second phase due to follow later in the year.
Andrew Raynes, director of digital and chief information officer at The Royal Papworth NHS Foundation Trust and chairman of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough ICS Digital Enabling Group, said: “We have had really-good engagement with our community across hospital, mental health, and community trusts, along with primary and social care, to help us take this project forward.
“A shared care record helps to join up services and saves time for both patients and healthcare staff.
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough’s ICS is bringing together health and social care to improve the health and wellbeing of local communities and reduce health inequalities
“It has been a cornerstone for us as a system and we’re delighted to be moving ahead with the next step in creating something that best serves our patients across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.”
“Cambridgeshire and Peterborough’s ICS is bringing together health and social care to improve the health and wellbeing of local communities and reduce health inequalities. Its aim is to ‘put patients at the heart of everything we do’.
Like other ICSs, it will take forward ideas outlined in the NHS Long Term Plan and is tasked with joining up existing services and creating new pathways that focus on the individual and allow them to be treated as close to home as possible.
Cambridgeshire County Council and Peterborough City Council’s executive director of people and communities, Wendi Ogle-Welbourn, said: “We’re really excited to have this opportunity to take forward the way in which the NHS and social care work together locally.
“We know that many people we support also have many points of contact with the NHS and if we can share information with their consent we will be able to strengthen the way we work together and keep the person at the centre.”
Scott Haldane, ICS executive sponsor for the shared care record programme and director of finance at Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust, added: “This is an important step in building integrated health care records for our communities across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.
To have instant access to a full medical history through a shared care record system represents a major advantage to both patient and clinician, especially in an emergency situation
“All our partners are committed to the project, which will help us to deliver effective, joined-up care to improve the lives of our patients.”
And Richard Hodder, patient representative and lead governor at Royal Papworth Hospital, said: “To have instant access to a full medical history through a shared care record system represents a major advantage to both patient and clinician, especially in an emergency situation.”
“One of the important factors behind Cambridgeshire and Peterborough’s choice of Orion Health is its commitment to using national standards to collect and structure information.
“The use of Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources or FHIR and other standards will make it easier to share information between the many different IT systems in use across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, in a safe and approved way.”
The ICS will be adopting the very-latest version of the Orion Health portal, which comes with a new user interface that adjusts automatically to screen size, and new dashboards that make it easier for users to get quickly to the information they need.