In a community pharmacy setting, because you can be providing an ongoing episode of care, you can seek extended permission to view for as long as you have the legitimate relationship. This can mean you do not need to seek explicit consent on every occasion you need to view the SCR. Consent is usually verbal but can be written. The system will ask you to confirm that you have the patient’s consent (including extended permission to view) before you access the patient’s record

• In the case of an emergency when verbal consent can’t be gained (e.g. if a patient is unable to give consent due to communication difficulties between pharmacy professional and patient), you can access the SCR if it is in the patient’s best interest to do so
• Once the SCR is accessed, a record should be made of advice and action taken (e.g. a note in the patient medication record (PMR)). 

Governance

Every pharmacy organisation must appoint an summary care record (SCR) governance person (SGP) who is responsible for auditing SCR access. Each time the SCR is viewed, an alert will be generated on a system database. There is a process for reviewing alerts, although not all alerts need to be individually reviewed.

For guidance on alert monitoring, see NHS Digital’s guidance.

It is the responsibility of the SGP to check if access was appropriate and legitimate. This process of checking will ensure access to the SCR is monitored and that any unauthorised access will be noticed and acted upon. In the case of inappropriate access, for example without permission or good reason, it is the SGP’s responsibility to investigate.