RPS joins health bodies to transform digital sharing of patient records

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) in Scotland has joined forces with 17 other health organisations to call on the Scottish government to implement a digital strategy that enables the sharing of patient records across primary care services.

The call comes in response to the Scottish government’s consultation ‘A Digital Strategy for Scotland 2017 and beyond’, which closed on 15 December 2016.

“With today’s increasingly complex care it is now more important than ever that essential information is shared to enable efficient assessment, care and treatment wherever people are in our health care system,” says Alex MacKinnon, director of RPS Scotland.

“The examples provided from across all the professions demonstrate why the ‘Digital Strategy for Scotland 2017 and beyond’ needs to speed up the pace of change,” he adds. “With so many health and social professionals now involved in patient care we need to have a digital infrastructure that enables us to work as one team.”

The organisations – which together represent more than 60,000 primary care clinicians across Scotland – have worked together to highlight to government the current challenges in health and social care and demonstrate how improved digital infrastructure and access to information could improve healthcare services and efficiency within the NHS.

In September 2016, the same collaboration launched its view on the future and principles of primary care in Scotland.

Harry McQuillan, chief executive of Community Pharmacy Scotland, which represents pharmacy contractors and who was also involved in the consultation response, comments: “It is encouraging to be part of a primary care collaborative that includes so many health clinicians who are all calling for the same thing.

“I don’t think any government can ignore such a collective call for action and change.”