Around 120 care homes across the Capital are now connected to the London Care Record supporting their staff to provide the best possible care for their residents (26 November 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.
This is part of the OneLondon programme, in partnership with London’s five Integrated Care Systems, to connect the Capital’s care homes to the London Care Record following a successful pilot.
Care home managers are extremely positive about how the London Care Record provides access to wider health information about their residents. They report that it helps their staff provide more effective care to residents while also saving them, as well as GP surgery teams and hospital staff, valuable time. Comments include:
“Instead of spending time on the phone to the ward getting information about the patient, I can find what I need in the London Care Record.” Care Home Manager
“It helps prevent delays when residents are discharged from hospital as discharge summaries are available within the London Care Record.” – Care Home Manager
“It gives us the full picture of a resident’s allergies and medical conditions which may not have been disclosed to us when they were admitted.” – Care Home Manager
“I can check a resident’s hospital appointment and see their medical history so we can better support them with any medical help and wider care that they need.” – Care Home Manager
“We can see when medication has been prescribed and dispensed rather than having to call individual GP surgeries and pharmacies.” – Care Home Manager
“Honestly, the London Care Record is a phenomenal tool and so convenient for us to use.” – Care Home Manager
Dan Heller, NHS London Digital Health & Care Team, said:
“It is great news that we are making such good progress with our work to roll out access to the London Care Record to more of the Capital’s care homes and I would like to thank everyone involved. Care home staff have told us that that whether preventing delays to hospital discharges, helping to better plan residents’ care or saving staff time the London Care Record makes such as positive difference. Our focus now turns to helping hundreds more care homes to connect to the London Care Record so even more people benefit. Imagine the impact on care if all care homes in London were using this vital tool!”
Late in 2022, as part of a pilot programme, the first care homes in the Capital were connected to the London Care Record. The pilot programme was an overwhelming success and 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.
The majority of care homes that have been connected use the Person Centred Software system (the same software used in the pilot). Over the last few weeks South East London ICS have also connected the first care homes using the Nourish software and we hope to be able to connect care homes using other software shortly.
You can find out more about the London Care Record here.