Staff in over 30 care homes across the Capital are now using the London Care Record and reporting how this tool supports them to provide the best possible care for their residents (18 July 2024).

The London Care Record is a single and secure view of a person’s health and care information that helps ensure frontline staff have the information they need about a person when they need it.

It includes any conditions which a person has, their test results, medicines, allergies and plans for their care and other useful information such as hospital discharge summaries is also available within the record.

These care homes staff join over 100,000 different health and care staff in the Capital and some neighbouring areas who use the London Care Record each month. Only staff involved in a person’s care are allowed to access the information.

Late in 2022, as part of a pilot programme, the first care homes in the Capital were connected to the London Care Record. This meant that for the first time they could see wider and key information about their residents from a range of health and care settings across London. The pilot programme was an overwhelming success and was Highly Commended at last month’s HSJ Digital Awards. The pilot showed:

• Information helped staff provide more effective care to residents, reduced unnecessary ambulance call outs and hospital admissions and supported faster discharges from hospital.
• It also saved care home staff, as well as GP surgery teams and hospital staff, valuable time by reducing the need to spend time on the phone checking key information that is available to view within the London Care Record.

This pilot project paved the way for rolling out access to the London Care Record to more of the Capital’s care homes. This work, being done in partnership with Integrated Care System colleagues in London, is now well underway. More homes using Person Centred Software systems (the same software used in the pilot) have been connected over the last few weeks and many more are due to be connected shortly. Good progress is also being made with care homes using Nourish software and the first of these will be connected in the coming weeks. Work has also begun with care homes using other software.

Care home managers recently connected to the London Care Record are extremely positive about having access to wider health information about their residents. Comments include:

Care Home Manager, Bavani Care Home, said.

“Honestly, the London Care Share record is a phenomenal tool and so convenient for us to use.”

Care Home Manager, Royal Star & Garter Care Home, said:

“It is great to now have the access and the joined up records will benefit everyone when they need to use it.”

Care Home Manager, Ballater House Care Home, said:

“We find it very useful in terms of searching for information like medical history, reports, current and previous medications and referrals. Also, it minimizes the use of paper or printing of hard copies as information is available.”

Harpreet Shergill, NHS London Digital Health & Care Lead, said:

“We want to ensure that our dedicated care home staff have the information they need to provide the best possible care for their residents. So it is great news that our work to roll out access to the London Care Record to more of the Capital’s care homes is now well underway. And we are delighted that we are already receiving such positive feedback from the staff who are using this vital tool for the first time about how it is supporting their work caring for their residents. We look forward to more care homes getting access in the coming weeks.”

You can find out more about the London Care Record here.