People living in Oldham are to benefit from new technology that will allow their health and social care records to be shared securely with professionals involved in their care.
A new digital care record solution called ShareforYou will allow patient records to be securely shared digitally, rather than relying on sharing information through paper records, phone or fax. Sharing information in this way makes care safer as health and social care professionals will have all of the necessary, up-to-date and historical information to hand, such as details of allergies and current medications, which will reduce the chance of errors being made.
Your ShareforYou Care Record will be created automatically, although you are able to opt-out if you wish. The legal basis to create and share your information for the purposes of your direct care comes under the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), conditions 6(1)(e) and (9)(2)(h). ShareforYou will be available from 17 February 2020.
If you do wish to opt-out of the ShareforYou record, all you need to do is visit your GP practice and complete a ShareforYou opt-out form.
It is worth keeping in mind that choosing not to share your information could make it more difficult in certain situations for health and social care workers to provide you with care you need quickly and safely. For example if you visited A&E in an emergency and staff were unable to access important information from your care records this might affect their ability to make clinical decisions or provide emergency care quickly.
If you do opt-out, the only way to change this is to go back to your GP again to ask them to ‘opt’ you back in.
More information about ShareforYou, including a full set of ‘frequently asked questions’ can be found here: www.pennineshareforyou.nhs.uk
If you have any questions or would like more information please email oldccg.share4you@nhs.net or call 0161 622 6400.
Many thanks
Shelley Grumbridge, Clinical Director for Urgent Care & IM&T
Oldham Clinical Commissioning Group (part of the Oldham Cares family)