“What matters to me is just as important as what’s the matter with me.”
What is the Universal Care Plan?
The Universal Care Plan (UCP) is an NHS service that digitally shares the care preferences and support needs of Londoners with health and care professionals across the Capital.
This helps to ensure that more people receive care that reflects what matters to them, wherever they are in the Capital, including in an emergency.
Currently the UCP supports Londoners of all ages receiving end-of-life and palliative care as well as those with sickle cell disease and other long-term conditions including dementia, frailty, learning disabilities and autism. It also supports carers by recording carer contingency plans.
Londoners can view their UCP on the NHS App and online login helping to reassure them that their care plans are communicated correctly to those professionals looking after them.
How does the Universal Care Plan work?
A care plan is created following a conversation between a health and care professional (such as a doctor or nurse) and the person in their care and will include information such as:
- What is important to the person in their day-to-day life.
- Their preferences or wishes about their care.
- What support they need and who is best placed to provide this.
- Information about others who may be involved in that person’s care, such as relatives.
As soon as information is saved on the UCP system, it is visible to all health and care services who use it. This includes the London Ambulance Service, 111 and Out of Hours GP services who may see the person in an emergency. The plan can be updated as the person’s wishes and needs change.
The UCP can be viewed by staff involved in the patient’s care through the London Care Record, some local Electronic Patient Record systems and via a web portal. It can also be viewed by health and care professionals outside of London using the National Record Locator Service, meaning essential information about a person’s urgent care needs can be accessed anywhere in England.
What difference does it make
The UCP has become a well-established tool with over 80,000 live care plans and over 30,000 views a month by health and care staff, including over 10,000 views a month by staff working in urgent and emergency care.
It also prevents people from needing to repeat their story and enables everyone involved in the person’s care to access the same information.
Visit the Universal Care Plan website
How your information is kept safe
By law, everyone working in, or on behalf of health and social care organisations, must respect patient privacy and keep your information safe. Our systems use a secure and encrypted system that meet NHS and social care security standards.
Only health and care staff involved in your care are allowed to view your records and an audit trail of everyone who accessed records using OneLondon tools is kept. Only approved organisations and/or approved researchers will be able to access the London Secure Data Environment.
Deciding not to share your information
You have a right to determine how your health and care information is used. You can object to your information being shared for direct care and to opt out of your data being used for planning and research purposes.
More information about how your health and care information is used, as well as how to exercise your right to object or opt out is available here.