Agenda item

Report of Juliet Hancox, Coventry and Rugby Clinical Commissioning Group on behalf of the Information Sharing Board

To receive presentations from Alec Price-Forbes, University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire and Kevin O’Leary, Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership Trust.

The Board considered a report of Juliet Hancox, Coventry and Rugby CCG on behalf of the Information Sharing Board which informed of the activities undertaken by the Information Sharing Board and demonstrated the opportunities that would arise from the new electronic patient record systems that were being put in place by University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire (UHCW) and Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership Trust (CWPT). The Board also received presentations from Alec Price-Forbes, UHCW and Kevin O’Leary, CWPT.

The report indicated that Coventry and Rugby CCG, the City Council, UHCW and CWPT had developed a programme with the key aim to facilitate the sharing of information between partner organisations to improve the level of service to the patient/ client. The sharing of this patient information between health and social care organisations was seen as a key enabler to improve their care and support. Key benefits included improving patient experience as the patient doesn’t have to keep repeating their story; reducing duplication; reducing medication errors; and enabling true integrated working.

The Board were informed of the national requirements, with a number of publications from national bodies having set out the aspiration to use electronic records to support improved patient care.

The report set out the governance structure for the programme. Across the four partner organisations there were hundreds of patient or client electronic record systems which created a major challenge for the project. A vision had been agreed to underpin the partnership work going forward which included ‘To deliver a system that enables us to become the healthiest community in the UK’.

Reference was made to the long timescale to be able to move from all the different electronic record systems to the goal of having a single shared patient record. The Programme Board had agreed that work would be undertaken in phases over time. Key work streams for initial development were:

·  Federated GP Practices

·  Discharge from hospital

·  Integrated Neighbourhood Teams

·  Urgent Care

Early implementation of the work streams had been part funded by the Better Care Fund. There were some interim solutions which allowed some of the existing systems to share information and information governance and patient consent to share data were now key considerations. Both UHCW and CWPT had progressed with renewing their electronic patient record systems which would give the opportunity to move towards more sharing of patient information and the use of patient portals.

Kevin O’Leary, CWPT, gave a presentation ‘It’s not about the system, its about interoperability’ which highlighted the difficulties of finding a system to interact with all the health and social care services in the area. Attention was drawn to the Interoperability Toolkit which included having a system with the capacity for different computer systems to ’talk to each other’ having a common language; reducing NHS expenditure through standardisation; and reduction in time to delivery by reducing the complexities of integration. The Trust had taken the decision to purchase a new clinical system now as from 6^th July, 2016 iPM would no longer be supported and Trusts were to be responsible for providing their own clinical information systems. The benefits of having a single electronic patient record system were set out. CWPT had joined the NHS London Procurement Partnership Framework. Following a formal mini competition with three suppliers, the preferred system supplier was chosen. The Board were informed of the benefits to both CWPT teams and service users. The presentation concluded with the main timescales for the project, with had a go live date of April, 2016 for Community and Children Services and October 2016 for Mental Health Services.

Alex Price-Forbes, UHCW gave a presentation on ‘Electronic Patient Records (EPR) Overview – enabling transformation and population health management’. The presentation referred to the current position and what was wrong with the current over complicated system; highlighted the global/ national drivers for change; and informed of what could be done to enable the procurement of a fully integrated electronic patient record system. There was a triple aim to improve patient experience of care, including quality and satisfaction; improving the health of the population; and reducing the per capita cost of health care. Attention was drawn to the need to focus on citizen/patient experience; the need to have a more holistic view of the patient; and the need to focus on health and wellbeing, leading on ill health prevention. The transformation was not just IT. Reference was made to the role of the Health and Well-being Board.

Members raised a number of issues arising from the presentations including:

·  Support for the vision for Coventry ‘to be the healthiest community in the UK’

·  Concerns about the legislative barriers relating to data protection, particularly in relation to safeguarding

·  The importance of the Board working together to overcome potential barriers

·  How to engage with all the necessary stakeholders to get people on board

·  The requirement for an action plan for moving forward

·  The importance of pooling funds to move the project forward

·  The issue of patient health data belonging to the individual and the need to ensure people take responsibility for their own health

·  The potential to secure support and funding from the city’s universities

·  The importance of deciding how the information was to be used

·  Clarification about the role of the patient.

RESOLVED that:

(1)  It be noted that there is a national requirement to develop digital records to support patient centred care.

(2)  The Health and Well-being Board support the on-going work and vision of the Information Sharing Board.

(3)  Consideration be given to the involvement of both Coventry and Warwick universities in the project.

(4)  Consideration be given to the development of a protocol around how to work with the public to ensure their involvement with the project.