The Norfolk and Waveney Integrated Care System (ICS) is proud to announce that we are delivering a Shared Care Record (ShCR) for the people and communities of Norfolk and Waveney.
What is the Shared Care Record (ShCR)?
The Shared Care Record is a way of bringing together your most important records from the different organisations involved in your health and social care. These are then visible to frontline health and social care professionals, at the point of care, in a read-only view.
Benefits of having a Shared Care Record
There is a common misconception that health and care workers already have access to people’s full health and care records. This is not always the case and often means that you are asked to repeat your medical history and social circumstance when seen by different health or care professionals. Having a Shared Care Record in place will allow them to see relevant information about the care and treatment you have had across all services so that they can make a more informed decision and support you to tell your story once.
Some key benefits of the ShCR are:
- Improved experience for you: from knowing that any health and care professional you see has the information they need to provide you with the best treatment and care or make the most informed decision for your wellbeing.
- Reduced waiting times and repetition: because having readily available information means less time contacting different settings and departments and less time repeatedly telling your story or sensitive, sometimes uncomfortable information.
- More efficient diagnostic testing: by avoiding duplication through better communication
- More holistic care: by taking a wider scope of information into account, health and care professionals can communicate easily and proactively, considering your overall health, care, and social circumstance where we are aware and not just considering your immediate condition – doing what is right by you.
- Increased satisfaction: and confidence that no matter how complex your condition, that you’re in the right place, at the right time, and whomever you see for your direct treatment and care is more informed.
Our aim
Our aim is to help our frontline health and care services by providing important information about you and your care, from your interactions with the following professional care services:
- GP
- NHS 111/out of hours service
- community services
- emergency department
- outpatient appointment
- hospital stays
- maternity service
- mental health practitioner or care practitioners
Your information will only be made available when needed at the point of care and will only be used by staff members with a legitimate basis to do so.
The Norfolk and Waveney ShCR helps meet this aim by reducing the time needed to learn about important health and care information, particularly in a crisis. This can be particularly helpful when you, your family or carer may not be able to answer specific health and care questions.
Current status
The Norfolk and Waveney Shared Care Record (ShCR) is now live to Norfolk County Council (NCC) Adults, East Coast Community Healthcare (ECCH), Integrated Care 24 (IC24), Norfolk Community Health and Care NHS Trust (NCH&C), Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT), Cambridgeshire Community Services NHS Trust (CCS), James Paget University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (JPUH), The Queen Elizabeth Hospital Kings Lynn NHS Trust (QEH), Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (NNUH) who can currently access data from GP Connect and NCC Adult and Children’s Social Care.
From Autumn 2023 we will have additional data provided by the 3 Acute Trusts and NSFT.
All ICS partner organisations are signatories to the “My Care Record” Information Sharing Framework which describes our commitments to sharing information legally, safely, and responsibly. This framework also dictates the conditions under which we can share your information for the purpose of your care. The information held within the Norfolk and Waveney Shared Care Record will only be used for direct care. Further information on My Care Record can be found here: https://www.mycarerecord.org.uk/
As we continue to develop the ShCR, updates can be found on this page.