New notes won’t be visible to patients until 2022 after the Government delayed changes, Pulse reports.
Weeks ago NHS Digital (also known as NHSX) announced that new GP notes on record would be visible to patients via the NHS App from December onwards.
But following warnings from the BMA about the timing of the rollout, changes have been delayed until April 2022.
Dr Anu Rao, BMA GP committee IT policy lead, told Pulse: “We are pleased that NHSX has listened to our concerns about the programme and decided to delay the rollout until spring next year… We will continue to work with NHSX and other stakeholders to look at the programme in detail to ensure a smooth rollout that is beneficial, useful and safe for patients, while minimising disruption to practices.”
NASGP members have noted that this will cause “significant” workload and say it has been raised within LMCs.
Dr Richard Fieldhouse, chair of NASGP, said: “This delay is very welcome indeed, just so long as it gives us enough time to prepare for the significant extra workload that this will no doubt entail.
“Although GPs will appreciate the advantages of patients being much better informed about their care, this does mean they will have access to much more information that they will quite likely want to check with us, no doubt having first checked it on the internet.
“All of this is going to increase workload and we should have a plan in place to manage this all.”
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