Summary Care Record

A Summary Care Record (SCR) is an electronic patient record, a summary of National Health Service patient data held on a central database covering England, part of the NHS National Programme for IT. The purpose of the database is to make patient data readily available anywhere that the patient seeks treatment, for example if they are staying away from their home town or if they are unable to give information for themselves. Despite opposition from some quarters, by September 2010, 424 GP practices across at least 36 Primary Care Trusts had uploaded 2.7 million Summary Care Records. On 10 October 2010, the Health Secretary announced that the coalition government would continue with the introduction, but that the records would 'hold only the essential medical information needed in an emergency – that is medication, allergen and [drug] reactions'. By March 2013, more than 24 million SCRs had been created across England.

Access to data is available to NHS personnel anywhere in England, but only if they have had the correct access rights on their smartcard approved by senior management. Pharmacists in five regions were given read-only access in an NHS England pilot in October 2014 so they could verify and compare a patient's medicines during Medicine use reviews. Patients were able to view their own records via the HealthSpace website, which closed down in December 2012.

The initial content of the database was to include the following:

In his announcement on October 10, 2010, the Health Secretary implied that its scope would in future be restricted to these three items, stating but that it would 'hold only the essential medical information needed in an emergency – that is medication, allergen and [drug] reactions'. It also stated however that additional information can be added at the specific request of the patient.

It was originally intended that the database system would be upgraded in the future to add:

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