Information for healthcare professionals and other staff

Integrated Care Records

Your local health and care services, including social care, are working more closely together to provide a joined-up service to support you.

When we work together we improve the quality of care we offer because the clinicians and other health and care professionals involved in your treatment have the best information on which to base their decisions.

It reduces the need for you to repeat information about you to different people involved in your care, thereby saving you time and frustration. It also makes the services themselves more efficient.

In 2023 we worked with Unity Insights in evaluating the benefits of the ICR to:

  • Identify and quantify benefits across ICS partners
  • Understand the user experience across ICS partners
  • Identify future developments

The outcomes of the evaluation were overwhelmingly positive with £3.78m benefits found for 2023/24 based on optimism bias adjusted values. As well as these great numbers the work identified a number of actions to be taken to improve the value of the ICR within the ICB.

Read more in the ICR Evaluation report.

Using the Integrated Care Record:

It is important that clinicians and other health and care professionals involved in a person’s care are able to view the relevant records as and when appropriate. In order to achieve this health and care organisations across BaNES Swindon and Wiltshire have access to an Integrated Care Record. This allows information recorded in one health or care organisation to be available to a professional caring for you who works in another.

Anonymised data is also used to help monitor and improve the quality of the services you receive. This doesn’t include information about who an individual is but provides important information about the services we provide.

There are very strict rules to control how and when records are used and they lay out what your rights are as part of this process.

You have the right to ask us to not use your information. Having read the information regarding the Integrated Care Record alongside your Practice Privacy Notice you will be able to make an informed decision as to whether you wish to object to having an Integrated Care Record in BSW. This means your information will not be shared in the Integrated Care Record and your care will be delivered without the benefits offered by the Integrated Care Record.  Information will still be shared about you but it will be via phone calls, emails and letters between the organisations caring for you. This may mean you receive your care and treatment more slowly than if you had an Integrated Care Record.

Frequently Asked Questions

Your right to object to information sharing

The organisations in the B&NES, Swindon & Wiltshire area have a public duty to care for patients and service users. Under data protection legislation, organisations process information which is necessary to provide the health and social care services to patients, as well as the management of health or social care systems and services.

You have the right to ask us to not use your information. Having read the information regarding the Integrated Care Record alongside your Practice Privacy Notice you will be able to make an informed decision as to whether you wish to object to having an Integrated Care Record in BSW. This means your information will not be shared in the Integrated Care Record and your care will be delivered without the benefits offered by the Integrated Care Record.  Information will still be shared about you but it will be via phone calls, emails and letters between the organisations caring for you. This may mean you receive your care and treatment more slowly than if you had an Integrated Care Record.

If you wish to exercise your right to object, you need to complete this opt-out form (pdf, 185KB).

Opting into Your Care Record

If you find that you are opted out of the Integrated Care Record and you would like to share your health data again you can ask your GP Practice to add you back in. Please download and complete the SCR Opt-In Form (docx, 88KB) and hand it to your practice to get this done.

Summary Care Records

Your Summary Care Record (SCR) is a short summary of your GP medical records. It tells other health and care staff who care for you about the medicines you take and your allergies.

SCRs are especially useful for patients who have a learning disability or find it difficult to communicate, but they can be beneficial to all people, especially in emergency situations in which patients are treated away from their usual hospital or GP surgery. Read more about Summary Care Records.

Opting out of Summary Care Records

SCRs improve care, but if you don't want to have one you can opt out. Tell your GP or fill in an SCR opt-out form and give it to your GP practice.