Restrictions on accessing SCRs
The summary care record (SCR) can only be accessed:
- By pharmacy professionals (pharmacists and pharmacy technicians) if there is a clinical need to do so
- If the pharmacy professional has a ‘legitimate relationship’ with the patient at that point in time (i.e. they have good reason to view it based on clinical need)
- If consent has been obtained prior to each viewing, unless access is required in an emergency scenario.
N.B. While it should be exceedingly rare for anyone to use emergency access in a community pharmacy, an example scenario might be a patient who is referred to the pharmacy from NHS 111, but the patient cannot be contacted by the pharmacy professional. To risk assess the consequences of not being able to contact the patient, and in the patient’s best interest, the SCR can be viewed. This could help determine the next steps the pharmacy professional may need to take, for example, referring to another healthcare provider or raising an alarm.