First online health accounts go live

Online accounts for patients can hold details such as blood pressure

NHS patients will this month have electronic access to their medical data for the first time through the HealthSpace project developed as part of the £12bn health service IT programme.

Using an online account, patients will be able to track details such as blood pressure, manage appointments and access their summary care record, from the national database.

Initial pilots will be small. Connecting for Health (CfH), which runs the central IT scheme, anticipates take-up by less than 10 per cent of the population, but HealthSpace still represents a significant change to the relationship between doctors and patients, according to national patient lead Marlene Winfield.

“We are poised for a big change, with doctors and patients working together,” she said.

“But it is going to be a slow burn because of the enormous cultural change for both the NHS and patients.”

The main summary care records programme involves uploading basic data such as details about allergies and medications from GP systems to the national data spine. Rollout started in Bolton in March and now includes Bury, Dorset and South Birmingham.

Almost 500,000 patients have been notified of the scheme, and only one per cent have chosen to opt out.

Bolton’s Out of Hours service, the first external access to the records, will go ahead this month. Ultimately the information will be accessible nationally by any clinician with a proven relationship with the patient.

With the first summary care records on the spine, the first linked HealthSpace accounts will also go live in Bolton in the next couple of weeks.

Access to summary records will be particularly useful for those with difficult conditions requiring complex medication regimes, said CfH summary record clinical director Gillian Baunold.

“Some people carry a card with their medication list on it but that puts the onus on the patient,” she said.

“HealthSpace will see the electronic primary care record really come into its own because it is an opportunity for the patient to have control.

“If someone is abroad, for example, they can still access the internet to show their record to a clinician if they need to.”

Initially HealthSpace functionality will be limited, but ultimately patients will be able to use the account to store information on how they want to be treated, their access needs and what directives they have regarding the end of their life.

Security is a key concern and the registration and access procedure is stricter than that used in electronic banking.

Having registered for an account, the patient receives a unique card with a grid of 50 characters. Users logging in will need a name, a password and the correct responses to three challenges relating to their grid.