The first step is being taken towards creating a single NHS and social care record for each resident in Derby and Derbyshire so that all the information to help in an individual’s care from health and local authority social care services is available to professionals in one secure place.

A new multi-million pound initiative to generate a shared health and social care record for each Derbyshire and Derby city resident was first announced in January and the contract to begin to develop a shared care record has now been awarded.

It is a national requirement for regions in England to develop shared care records and this initiative for Derby and Derbyshire means local services are on track to deliver the first step of a shared care record by the deadline of September 2021 – known in the contract jargon as the “minimum viable solution”.

IT solutions firm, Orion Health, has been awarded the contract to begin work on developing a secure shared care record for everyone living in the local area, on behalf of public services partnership Joined Up Care Derbyshire.

It will mean that health and social care professionals working across all Derbyshire and Derby city’s NHS and local authority social care organisations will be able to access the same records to support their care of individual patients.

It will promote better “joined up care” – especially for patients or service users who need multiple services and see lots of different professionals, who in future will avoid the need to repeat their stories at each appointment.

Or for individuals who suffer an emergency and arrive in A&E, so doctors and nurses can bring up their records quickly to check for things like any allergies to medications.

Tracy Allen, who is leading on digital innovation for Joined Up Care Derbyshire, said:

This is a really important step in generating much better integrated and streamlined records for local people.

With digital health and social care records held by each organisation already it is much more feasible to create a way for NHS and social care professionals to see notes made by colleagues in partner organisations to support individual patients.

This contract with Orion enables us to begin to scope the way in which this might work, securely and safely, over the coming months.

The total contract value is around £7.2 million.

Joined Up Care Derbyshire’s partner organisations are signed up to delivering the project, with Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust as the contracting authority. The other partners are: Derby City Council, Derbyshire County Council, Derby and Derbyshire Clinical Commissioning Group, University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust, Derbyshire Community Health Services NHS Foundation Trust, Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust and DHU Health Care, Derbyshire GP Alliance and East Midlands Ambulance Service.

Joined Up Care Derbyshire, also known as Derbyshire’s Integrated Care System (ICS) brings together health and social care organisations across Derbyshire. 

The benefits of a shared care record include:

  • Professionals can work more effectively and efficiently if they can share relevant information among agencies providing support
  • Sharing records means health and social care workers have the most up to date information about their clients and patients
  • Service users don’t have to provide the same facts repeatedly
  • Patients don’t have to have unnecessary clinical tests and are not at risk of being given drugs they are allergic to.

Tracy Allen added:

This is a first step and it is important that we get the solution right rather than rush to a launch date. We are confident that Orion has the expertise to devise a shared care record which is compatible with our various patient record systems and offers a watertight, secure portal through which care professionals can get a holistic view of each person seeking their help.