Traditionally, when patients have received care in a number of places in Rotherham, such as the hospital or GP practice, their information has been stored on different computer systems, where it can only be seen be health setting inputting the information. Having a more joined-up and co-ordinated record will improve the way information about patients is shared in order to deliver better care.
Patients and carers were asked about their views on how information is currently shared amongst professionals and how they feel their experience could be improved. We also discussed with patients how they would like to receive information on the record.
Patients and carers tell us again and again that they don’t like having to keep repeating their information. Also, if people have to give out a lot of complicated information its easy to forget important pieces of information. If someone is ill, or worried this can be even harder. Also, people are often surprised that different parts of the health service don’t have access to all a patients information. Patients and carers also told us that they required the information to be in easy read format.
We have worked with health and social care partners to implement the Rotherham Health Record, which is an electronic system for sharing your health information in a secure way with health information in a secure way with health and care staff who provide care directly to the patient. This gives them access to the most up-to-date information so that they can provide better and quicker care. We have worked with Speak Up to produce an easy read version of the Rotherham Health Record patient leaflet.
