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The Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) and British Medical Association (BMA) have urged the government and NHS England to pause the rollout of GP Connect: Update Record on 1 October 2025, owing to concerns that incorrect patient information will be sent to pharmacies.
In a position statement published on 15 September 2025, the RCGP and BMA’s Joint GP IT Committee (JGPITC) warned that “pharmacies are still reviewing the almost 15,000 records that may have been incorrectly coded, with some of those incorrect codes now being part of the GP record”.
“Problems came to light earlier this year, in what NHS England categorises a ‘major incident’, when pregnancy codes were sent to practices following Pharmacy First and contraception consultations that may have been incorrect (i.e. the patients may not have been pregnant),” it added.
GP Connect: Update Record is a digital service that allows community pharmacies to send details from Pharmacy First blood pressure and contraception service consultations to a patient’s GP record.
The statement said: “Having taken stock of the current position at its meeting on 3 September 2025, JGPITC does not yet feel GP Connect: Update Record as implemented with the Pharmacy First information model can command the confidence of the profession.”
“The Committee is aware of the contractual requirement for practices to turn on GP Connect: Update Record by 1 October 2025. Our advice would be that this date be put on hold until the concerns have been resolved,” it added.
The JGPITC also said it believed other aspects of GP Connect “require work”, particularly the understanding of data protection liabilities, the extent of data flows, security, the ability to surface audit trails and opt outs.
In the statement, it set out three “necessary steps” that would convince the RCGP and BMA that GP Connect: Update Record is ready for use with Pharmacy First, including “frank acknowledgment” from NHS England that it is accountable for the model; an editorial policy for the model; and either involvement of the JGPITC in the root-cause analysis of the pregnancy coding issue or a detailed report setting out why it went wrong and lessons learned.
In response to a request for comment from The Pharmaceutical Journal, a spokesperson for the NHS said: “NHS England is committed to ensuring that GP Connect: Update Record delivers on its purpose to reduce clinical risk and support safe practice whilst easing workload pressures in both general practice and community pharmacy.
“We are continuing to work with the BMA and RCGP to support its safe implementation.”
